
Class _^':i^ 
Book__iil-'^=^ 
Gopyright]^^ 

COPyRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



SOME SUCCESSFUL 
AMERICANS 



BY 



SHERMAN WILLIAMS 

Formerly Superintendent of Schools at 
Glens Falls, N.Y. 



BOSTON, U.S.A. 

GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
Cbe 9ltl)cnjciim |)rc£fet 

1904 



LIBRiRV "♦ CONGRESS 

Two Cooies Bereived 

AUb 3 1904 
'I Cooyrleht Entry 

CLASS C*^ XXc. No. 

' COPY B 



Col'VKlGHT, 1904 

By SHERMAN WILLIAMS 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



PREFACE 

As superintendent of schools I frequently talked with 
boys who were in doubt as to what they should do in life, 
and who felt that there were v^ry few opportunities in the 
business world of to-day for those without money and influ- 
ence. Of course there never was a time when the demand 
for capable, industrious, energetic, and honest young men 
so far outran the supply as at present. A personal talk 
with a boy would generally convince him of this ; but for 
one boy who would come and talk with me about it there 
were probably several others who were also thinking, but 
who would not come to me, and many more who were not 
even thinking. This led me to do something in school in 
the way of a study of the lives of men and women who had 
made a success in life in the face of what are called adverse 
circumstances. 

When I began institute work I urged upon teachers the 
importance of taking up this matter, and was met with 
the statement that unless one had access to a fair library 
the work could not be done, as there was no one book that 
could be used to advantage ; that while there were many 
excellent biographies and works of collective biography, 
there was none which dealt with both men and women, 
with those working in very different fields of labor, and 
which dealt only with those who had had to make their 
own way in life. It was desirable and almost necessary to 



iv PREFACE 

have a book which met these conditions. It was also desir- 
able that it should deal only with Americans and with those 
who were no longer hving, as the complete life should be 
studied. 

I saw the force of these statements and have endeavored 
to make such a book as these teachers feel they need. It 
goes without saying that these sketches are so brief that 
very much must be omitted in each life. Teachers should 
encourage their pupils to read more complete biographies, 
not merely of these men and women, but of many others as 
well. A well-written biography is as interesting as a novel, 
and far more profitable reading. 

SHERMAN WILLIAMS. 

May 2, 1904. 



CONTENTS 



Abraham Lincoln . . 
Peter Cooper .... 

Mary Lyon 

Horace Greeley . . . 
Cyrus Hall McCormick 
Frances Willard . . 
Louisa M. Alcott . . 
Alexander H. Stephens 
Leland Stanford . . 



Lawyer, Politician, and Siatcstnan 

Business Man and Pliilantliropist 

Teacher 

Editor 

Inventor 

Reformer 

Author 

Layover and Statesman .... 

Business Man, Politician, and 
Philanthropist 

Charles Pratt Business Man and Philanthropist 

Cornelius Vanderbilt . . Steaml'oat and Rail7vav Magnate . 

Eli Whitney In7<entor 

Henry Clay Lawyer, Politician, and Statesman 

Benjamin Franklin . . . Printer, Im'entor, Scientist, Author, 

Politician, and Diplomat . . . 



Page 

7 

33 
45 
55 
79 
89 

99 
1 1 1 



131 

'39 
147 

155 

173 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



TO THE READER 

This little volume tells the story of a few men and women 
who began life under what are generally considered adverse 
circumstances and who yet were remarkably successful. 
The sketches cover a wide range of callings, extend over a 
considerable period of time, and represent different portions 
of our country. 

These few men and women, however, typify a very large 
class. More than three fourths of the leaders in industries, 
professions, and other calUngs began life without money 
or influence. You can scarcely find a single nianager of 
a great manufactory who did not come up from the ranks. 
Permit me to call your attention to a few who have made 
their way up from humble beginnings. 

Philip Armour lived on a farm till he was twenty. 

Oakes Ames, the great shovel manufacturer, was the son of a 
blacksmith. 

Henry Burden, the inventor and famous maker of horseshoes, was 
a farmer's son. 

Isaac Babbitt, inventor of the metal that bears his name, was a 
goldsmith. 

Ephraim Bell, founder of the celebrated agricultural works and 
inventor of a reaper, a harvester, and a mower, began life as a 
carpenter. 

Charles Brush, the noted electrician, spent his early years upon 

a farm. 

I 



2 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

George Henry Corliss, maker of the famous Corliss engines, began 
life as a clerk in a cotton factory. 

Alexander Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was 
a rod man in the employ of the company of which he is now president. 

Charles Cheney, the great silk manufacturer, began as a clerk at 
fourteen and then worked at farming till middle life. 

Alvin Clark, the first of the great opticians of that name, was the 
son of a farmer. 

Jonas Chickering, the great piano maker, was the son of a 
blacksmith. 

Samuel Colt, the noted manufacturer of firearms, went to sea as 
a boy before the mast, and was afterwards a dyer and bleacher in 
his father's factory. 

Horace Claflin, the great merchant, began life as a clerk. 

Andrew Carnegie began as a bobbin boy at a salary of $1.20 
per week. 

Henry Disston, manufacturer of the Disston saws, was a mechanic 
working at day wages. 

William E. Dodge, the wholesale dry goods merchant, worked in 
a cotton mill. 

Anthony Drexel, the great banker, was a poor boy working in his 
father's office. 

Thomas A. Edison was a newsboy. 

John Fritz, the nestor of the iron trade, began life as a blacksmith. 

Jay Gould was brought up on a farm, and became, first, a book- 
keeper, then a surveyor. 

Daniel Fayerweather, who left many millions to hospitals and 
educational institutions, was first a farm hand, then a shoemaker, 
then a tin peddler. 

Collis P. Huntington, the great railway magnate, supported him- 
self from the time he was fourteen. 

Peter Henderson, florist and seedsman, was apprenticed to a 
gardener in Scotland. 

Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, was the son of a 
farmer, and was a working mechanic. 

James Harper, founder of a great publishing house, was a farmer's 
son, and was apprenticed to a printer. 



TO THE READER 3 

George Pullman, founder of the great Pullman company, at seven- 
teen was working for a country merchant. 

Asa Packer, founder of Lehigh University, first worked in a tan- 
nery, then on a farm, and afterwards became a carpenter and joiner. 

James Lick, of Lick University fame, was very poor when a young 
man, and worked in a piano manufactory. 

Isaac Rich, who gave one and a half millions of dollars to Boston 
University, began life working in a fish stall. 

Philo Remington, founder of the Remington company for the 
manufacture of firearms, began life as a factory hand. 

John Roach, the famous shipbuilder, came to this country penni- 
less, at the age of fourteen. 

John Rockefeller began life as an assistant bookkeeper in a com- 
mission house at a salary of less than four dollars a week. 

Charles Schwab began his career driving stakes at a dollar a day. 

Samuel Sloan, the great railway president, was at first a clerk in 
an importing house. 

Isaac Singer, of sewing-machine fame, was a mechanic working 
for daily wages. 

Moses Taylor, the great merchant, began life as a clerk. 

Herbert Vreeland, president of the Metropolitan Street Railway, 
began life on a delivery wagon, afterwards worked in a gravel pit, 
and then as a brakeman. 

Lucy Larcom, the author, was the daughter of poor parents, and 
at thirteen years of age entered a cotton factory as a common 
operative. 

George W. Childs, of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, was an 
errand boy. At thirteen he entered the navy, in which he remained 
about a year and a half ; he then became a clerk in a bookstore at 
three dollars a week. 

James A. Garfield was born in a log cabin. He worked on a farm 
early in life ; later he was a wood chopper, and a mule driver on the 
canal. He earned his first dollar by planing boards. 

George Peabody, the great London banker, entered a grocery store 
as a clerk at eleven years of age. 

John Ericsson, of Monitor fame, was a poor boy, and early in life 
worked in the iron mines of Sweden. 



4 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Samuel Williston, who gave more than one and a half millions of 
dollars for noble purposes, began work on a farm at ten years of 
age, and remained there for six years at an average wage of seven 
dollars a month. 

Daniel Webster was the son of a poor struggling farmer. 

Thurlow Weed as a boy was so poor that he had to wear old bits 
of rag carpet tied on his feet in place of shoes and stockings. He 
worked in a blacksmith's shop when only eight years of age. 

Elihu Burritt, the youngest of ten children, was the son of a farmer. 
At eighteen years of age he was apprenticed to a blacksmith. 

Lucy Stone was born on a farm. Almost as .soon as she could 
walk and count she had to help in the work, driving the cows from 
the pasture, dropping corn for the planting, and similar light work. 

John Jacob Astor was the son of a butcher and worked with his 
father till he was sixteen years of age. After he had worked for him- 
self three years he had saved only seventy-five dollars. 

Henry Wilson, the noted statesman, was the son of a day laborer. 
At ten years of age he began work on a farm, and at twenty-one was 
a shoemaker and cobbler. 

This list might be extended indefinitely and include 
famous lawyers, physicians, preachers, in fact representa- 
tives of every calling. 

It is worth while to note that these successful men have 
been willing to begin their work by doing whatever they 
could get to do, that they have been industrious, prudent, 
economical, persistent, and temperate. 

In closing I should like to call your attention to the 
following from Andrew Carnegie. 

It is not from the sons of the millionaire or the noble that the 
world receives its teachers, its martyrs, its inventors, its statesmen, its 
poets, or even its men of affairs. It is from the cottage of the poor 
that all these spring. We can scarcely read one among the few 
"immortal names that were not born to die," or who has rendered 



TO THE READER 5 

exceptional service to our race, who had not the advantage of being 
cradled, nursed, and reared in the stimulating school of poverty. 
There is nothing so enervating, nothing so deadly in its effects upon 
the qualities which lead to the highest achievement, moral or intel- 
lectual, as hereditary wealth. And if there be among you a young 
man who feels that he is not compelled to exert himself in order to 
earn and live from his own efforts, I tender him my profound sympa- 
thy. Should such a one prove an exception to his fellows, and 
become a citizen living a life creditable to himself and useful to the 
state, instead of my profound sympathy I bow before him with pro- 
found reverence ; for one who overcomes the seductive temptations 
which surround hereditary wealth is of the "salt of the earth" and 
entitled to double honor. 




Statue of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Park, Chicago 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

1809-1S65 

Perhaps the most striking character in all American 
history is Abraham Lincoln. Few people have begun life 
under more unfavorable circumstances. No other person 
in this country beginning life under such conditions, ever 
accomplished so much. Such a man with such a history 
must always be a person of great interest to all who believe 
in a "government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people " ; to all who believe that the world with its 
opportunities for progress should be open to every child, 
no matter how humble his origin. 

Every boy who believes, as he should believe, that he is 
" the architect of his own fortune," and who is ambitious to 
make the most of himself, must be interested in the story 
of Abraham Lincoln. His early life with its hardships, 
its struggles, its lack of opportunity, must encourage one 
who begins life under much more favorable circumstances. 
His success under these conditions should stimulate every 
ambitious boy to begin the struggle of life hopefully and 
to continue it courageously. 

Believing that the story of such a life is the birthright 
of every American citizen, and that it is a calamity to miss 
it, the writer is led to do his part in placing that story 
within the reach of American children, 

7 



8 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Lincoln's Ancestry 

Abraham Lincoln was the second child of Thomas and 
Nancy Lincoln. His mother's maiden name was Hanks. 
Though his parents were very poor and his father was 
thriftless and without ambition, they came of good ances- 
try. About 1640 three brothers of the name of Lincoln 
came to Hingham, Massachusetts, from the west of Eng- 
land. One of these, Samuel, was the ancestor of Abraham 
Lincoln. Many of Samuel's descendants were prominent 
men. One was a member of the Boston Tea Party and 
was a captain of artillery during the Revolution. A great- 
grandson, named Levi, a graduate of Harvard, was one 
of the minutemen at Cambridge. He held several local 
offices and was appointed Attorney-General of the United 
States by Jefferson ; for a few months he was Secretary 
of State. Li 1807 he was lieutenant governor of Mas- 
sachusetts. In 181 1 he was appointed associate justice of 
the United States Supreme Court by Madison, but declined 
to serve. For years he was considered the head of the 
Massachusetts bar. 

His son, also named Levi, a graduate of Harvard, became 
governor of Massachusetts, and held other important offices. 
Enoch, another son, was a member of Congress for eight 
years and became governor of Maine. 

Another son, named Mordecai, from whom Abraham 
was directly descended, was the proprietor of numerous 
iron works, sawmills, and gristmills. His son Mordecai 
moved to New Jersey and from there to Pennsylvania. 
Many of his descendants in the latter state have taken 
prominent positions in public life. A son of this Mordecai 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 9 

moved to Virginia. He had five sons, to one of whom he 
gave one hundred and twenty acres of land situated in 
what is now Rockingham County, Virginia. 

Soon afterwards rumors of a rich western land called 
Kentucky began to be circulated. The favorite route to 
this new country was through Rockingham County, and the 
newly arrived settler caught the fever of unrest and with 
his wife and family moved to Jefferson County, Kentucky. 
In 1778 he was killed by the Indians, leaving three sons 
and two daughters. The eldest son, Mordecai, inherited 
most of the large estate and became well-to-do. Very 
little is known of the second son, Josiah. The daughters 
married into well-known Kentucky families. The youngest 
son, Thomas, the father of Abraham Lincoln, was, at ten 
years of age, left to shift for himself, and was a wandering, 
laboring boy before he had learned to read. 

The ancestry of the mother of Lincoln is as follows. 
Benjamin Hanks came to this country in 1699 and settled 
at Plymouth, Massachusetts. He had eleven children, 
one of whom, William, went to Virginia and settled near 
the mouth of the Rappahannock River. William had five 
sons, four of whom, about the middle of the eighteenth 
century, moved to Amelia County, Virginia, where they 
owned a thousand acres of land. Joseph, the youngest of 
these sons, married Nancy Shipley, a sister of the mother 
of Thomas Lincoln. About 1789 Joseph Hanks moved 
to Kentucky and settled near what is now Elizabeth- 
town. His youngest daughter, Nancy, was the mother of 
Abraham Lincoln. 

That such a man as Lincoln should spring from such 
ancestry is in no way remarkable. 



lO 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



Lincoln's BovHOon 

Abraham Lincoln's father was an iUiterate man whc 
learned to write his name in a bungling sort of way afte: 
he was married. He seems to have been willing to work 
but was neither thrifty nor ambitious. He learned th( 













jf^-^-M 




Hi''' ' "*: 





Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace 



trade of carpenter and cabinet maker. He married hi 
cousin, Nancy Hanks, in 1807. Abraham, their secon( 
child, was born on the 12th of F'ebruary, 1809. The nam( 
Abraham had been common in both the Lincoln and th( 
Hanks families for generations. 

The Lincolns lived far from any considerable settlement 
and Abraham was a well-grown lad when he first saw j 
church. Both his father and his mother were religious ; bu 
religious services were rare, being confined to those hek 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN II 

now and then by itinerant preachers. One of these, a Bap- 
tist by the name of Elkin, aroused Abraham's interest in 
public speaking. Years afterwards, when Lincoln was Presi- 
dent, he referred to Elkin as being the most remarkable 
man whom he knew in his boyhood. 

Not only the Lincolns but most of their neighbors were 
very poor. Thomas Lincoln gave up his trade and took 
to farming, and, when Abraham was about four years old, 
moved his family to Knob Creek. The boy now began 
to go to school, but the schools of that time bore little 
resemblance to ours. There was no regular time for the 
school to be in session ; it might continue for a few months 
or a few weeks or even for a shorter time. The only thing 
required of the teacher was ability to manage the older 
boys. The schoolhouse was usually a log hut furnished 
only with rough benches, a teacher's desk, and a box stove 
or rude fireplace. Many of the pupils had no books. 

It is said that young Lincoln was an apt pupil and learned 
readily. His mother took great pains to teach her children 
what she knew, and from her they learned much of Bible 
lore, fairy tales, and country legends. Lincoln was wonder-" 
fully familiar with the facts and with the language of the 
Bible. No doubt this came from his mother's training, as 
perhaps also did his love for story-telling. 

In 1816 the Lincolns moved to Spencer, Indiana, where 
for nearly a year they lived in a "half-faced camp," a rude 
cabin inclosed on three sides, the fourth being partly 
screened by the skins of animals. In one corner was a 
rough fireplace made of sticks and clay, also a chimney of 
the same material. The furniture of the house was of the 
rudest description and of home manufacture. The cabin 



12 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



which later took the place of the " half -faced camp" had 
no floor, door, nor window. Abraham slept on a bed of 
leaves in the loft. There was no stairway, but in its place 
were wooden pegs driven into the wall. 

Lincoln was now in his eighth year. His dress con- 
sisted of a shirt of linsey-woolsey, a homespun stuff made 
from a mixture of cotton and wool, colored, if at all, with 

dyes obtained from roots 
and bark. He wore cow- 
hide boots or moccasins, 
deerskin leggins, a hunting 
shirt of the same material, 
and a "coon-skin" cap. He 
never wore stockings until 
he was a man. Now that 
he was strong enough to 
work he was put to such 
tasks as bringing tools, car- 
rying water, dropping seeds, 
and picking berries. 

There was plenty of food, 
Half-Faced Camp ^^^^j^ ^^ -^ ^^^ q^^^^^ ^^j^^ 

and wild fruits were to be had in abundance. The potato 
was the only vegetable raised to any considerable extent. 
The everyday bread in the Lincoln family was corndodger, 
wheat cakes being a dainty reserved for Sundays and spe- 
cial occasions. Food was prepared in the simplest way, 
owing to a lack of facilities, and the Lincolns were not the 
only family who had none of our modern conveniences. 
There was no stove, the nearest approach to one being 
the Dutch oven. This, with an iron kettle, made up the 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 13 

outfit of most kitchens, with the exception of an old piece 
of tin punched full of holes to serve as a grater, or, as it 
was then called, a "gritter." Sometimes it was used to 
make corn meal, but this was a slow and laborious process. 
Most of the dishes were pewter; the spoons were iron; the 
knives had horn handles. The War of 18 12 had just closed. 
The embargo act had destroyed commerce. Few things 
were manufactured in this country, and those imported were 
too expensive for the use of the common people. Thorns 
were used for pins, crusts of rye bread for coffee, leaves of 
various herbs for tea, and corn whisky diluted with water 
was a common drink. 

During the summer of 18 18 a mysterious disease called 
the "milk-sick" broke out in Indiana. It seems to have been 
something like quick consumption. Many died of it, among 
the number the mother of Lincoln. There was no doctor 
in that distant wilderness to care for the sick, nor could 
a minister be found to bury the dead. Soon after the 
death of his mother, Lincoln wrote what he says was his 
first letter, — a letter asking his old friend. Parson Elkin, 
to come and preach a memorial sermon, which the parson 
did. It was a memorable occasion to Lincoln. He said 
of his mother, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my 
angel mother." 

Thomas Lincoln was left with the care of his two chil- 
dren, Sarah, twelve years of age, Abraham, nine, and 
Dennis Hanks, eighteen months younger. It was a hard 
situation. The few comforts that had been known were 
exchanged for a home more forlorn than you can possibly 
imagine. But Thomas Lincoln did not allow anything 
to worry him long. His was too easy a nature for that. 



14 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

He hoped the good Lord would send them help somehow 
and some day, but how and when he did not feel called 
upon to be concerned about. In the fall of 1 8 19 he went 
to Kentucky and married Mrs. Sally Johnston, a widow 
with three children. 

The new mother brought furnishings unknown in the 
Lincoln home. There were tables, chairs, a bureau, cloth- 
ing, crockery, bedding, knives, forks, and many other com- 
forts which the Lincoln family had always done without. 

Abraham was ten years of age when his new mother 
came. They were good friends at once. Years afterwards 
she said of him, "He never gave me a cross word or look, 
and never refused, in fact or in appearance, to do anything 
I requested of him." He said of her, "She was a noble 
woman, affectionate, good, and kind." 

From the time he was ten till he was twenty-three 
Lincoln was rarely idle. He learned to do all the kinds 
of work which the early settlers, wholly dependent upon 
themselves, must do, — to drive, to plow with the old shovel 
plow, to use the sickle, to thresh wheat with a flail, to fan 
and clean it with a sheet, and to take the grain to mill and 
grind it. His father taught him the rudiments of carpen- 
try and cabinetmaking. He became one of the strongest 
and most popular " hands " in the vicinity. Much of the 
time he worked as a hired boy on some neighbor's farm for 
twenty-five cents a day, the wages being paid to his father. 
He served as hostler, plowman, wood chopper, carpenter, 
and helped with the " chores." 

Hunting was the most common sport of the day, but one 
in which young Lincoln seems to have had little or no interest. 
He was fond of fishing, swimming, wrestling, and jumping. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1 5 

He ran races at the noonday rest. He was present at every 
country horse race and fox chase. He enjoyed most the 
occasions that brought men together, — the "raising," the 
husking bee, the spelHng school. At all these he was very 
popular. He was noted for his wit, his stories, his good 
nature, his practical jokes, and a kind of rough politeness. 

Lincoln says he went to school by "littles" and not more 
than a year altogether ; but he learned to read, to love read- 
ing, and to love good books ; and if one does that and thinks 
about what he reads, he is in a fair way to become well 
educated. Lincoln had access to few books, but they 
were good ones. He read them again and again and knew 
them thoroughly. Among them were the Bible, "yEsop's 
Fables," " Robinson Crusoe," " Pilgrim's Progress," a " His- 
tory of the United States," Weems's "Life of Washington," 
and the Statutes of Indiana. 

Lincoln told a friend that he read every book that he 
heard of in a circle of fifty miles from his home. He read 
nights, and mornings as soon as it was light. He made 
long extracts from what he read and discussed his reading 
with others. Mr. Jones, the storekeeper, took a Louisville 
paper, and Lincoln went regularly to read it. All the men 
and boys in the neighborhood gathered at the store and dis- 
cussed the contents of the paper. Lincoln read Cooper's 
" Leatherstocking Tales " with rapturous delight. It is said 
that he had a hunger for books that was almost pathetic. 
He was not, however, a weak bookworm. He was fond 
of athletic sports, excelled any boy of his age in wrestling, 
and was a champion at every game of muscular skill. 

At seventeen years of age Lincoln walked a long distance 
to hear one of the famous Breckenridges of Kentucky speak 



1 6 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

at a murder trial. This speech seemed to arouse the latent 
genius of the young lad, and from that time on he practiced 
speaking. He would speak on any topic that had aroused 
the interest of the neighborhood, — road building, school 
tax, bounty on wolves, etc. His fondness for speech mak- 
ing led him to attend all the trials in the neighborhood, 
and to be often present at the sessions of the court held 
fifteen miles away. 

Lincoln could never be satisfied on any question till he 
understood it thoroughly, nor could he give up a difficult 
problem till he had mastered it. 

When he was eighteen or nineteen years of age Lincoln 
spent some months as a boatman on the Ohio and Missis- 
sippi rivers. All that he saw of life in his early years, 
outside his own neighborhood, was on these rivers, which 
offered to the West of that day the only route to the outer 
world. This river life was peculiar. There were all sorts 
of craft, — steamboats, keel boats, flatboats, pirogues, tim- 
ber rafts, "arks," "sleds," "Orleans boats," and "broad 
horns." None of these ran on any time schedule. No one 
was in a hurry. They stopped anywhere to let off passen- 
gers. They tied up wherever it was convenient. This expe- 
rience must have widened Lincoln's ideas of life. 

In the spring of 1830 the Lincolns moved to Sangamon 
County, Illinois. In the summer of that year the young 
man started out to shift for himself. He left home empty- 
handed. He had not even a respectable suit of clothes. 
He had no trade, no profession, no land, no patron, no in- 
fluence, but he was strong, good-tempered, and industrious. 
He was already some months over twenty-one years of 
age. The first work he did was to split rails in payment 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1 7 

for enough brown jean to make a pair of trousers, splitting 
four hundred rails for each yard of cloth. 

Lincoln was six feet four inches tall, and very proud of 
his height, as well as of his strength. It is said that he 
could out lift, outwork, and out wrestle any man he ever 
met. His strength won him friends, but his good nature, 
wit, stories, and skill in debate did far more for him. 

In 1 83 1 Lincoln went again to New Orleans and remained 
for a month. It was here that he first saw the horrible 
side of slavery, — the negroes in chains, the whippings and 
scourgings. In later life he often referred to this visit. 

Soon after his return from New Orleans he became a 
clerk in a store and mill at New Salem, Illinois. It was at 
this time that he received the title "Honest Abe." The 
following incidents, characteristic of the man, show why he 
was regarded as being unusually honest. On one occasion 
he discovered that he had taken six and a quarter cents 
too much from a customer. After the store was closed for 
the day he walked three miles to return the money. On 
another occasion his last transaction for the day was to sell 
a customer half a pound of tea. In the morning he found 
in the scales a four-ounce weight. Seeing his mistake of 
the night before, he closed the store and hurried to deliver 
the rest of the tea. 

Since leaving Indiana, Lincoln had read but little. The 
store life gave leisure for reading, and he began to look 
about for books. More than ever did he realize that one's 
power over men depends upon knowledge. He began the 
study of English, walking six miles to borrow a copy of 
Kirkham's Grammar, the only book on the subject in that 
section of the country. 



1 8 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Lincoln in Public Life 

The Black Hawk War broke out in 1832. Lincoln enlisted 
and was chosen captain of his company. At the close of 
the war he became a candidate for the legislature, but was 
defeated, the only time he ever suffered defeat by a direct 
vote of the people. His popularity where he was known 
was shown by the fact that his own district, though opposed 
to him politically, gave him two hundred and twenty-seven 
out of three hundred votes. 

Lincoln sought employment as a clerk, but being unable 
to secure it went into partnership with a man by the name 
of Berry and bought out, one after another, the three 
grocery stores of New Salem. All his leisure at this time 
was taken up in reading borrowed copies of Shakespeare 
and Burns, and in studying law, which he now undertook 
seriously. He bought of an emigrant a barrel partly filled 
with refuse. At the bottom he found a copy of Black- 
stone's "Commentaries," which he read with the greatest 
interest. His partner's dissolute habits and his own absorp- 
tion in his books were fatal to business, so that before long 
Lincoln had saddled upon him a debt which it took him 
many years to pay. In 1833 he was made postmaster, but 
the office was worth very little financially. 

The same year he was made deputy county surveyor. He 
knew nothing of surveying, but in six weeks he had mastered 
all the books he could get that treated of that subject. 
This is another illustration of his power of application. 
His surveys arc said to have been remarkably accurate. 
His pay as surveyor was three dollars a day, a far larger 
sum than he had ever earned before. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1 9 

In 1834 Lincoln was elected to the legislature and began 
to study law as a matter of business instead of pleasure. 
Twenty years later, when a young man asked him how to 
become a lawyer, he recommended the reading of certain 
books and then said, " Work, work, work is the main thing." 

In 1836 Lincoln was reelected to the legislature, and 
during the same year admitted to the practice of law. The 
legislature that year contained many remarkable men. One 
afterwards became President of the United States ; another 
became an unsuccessful candidate for the same office ; six 
became United States senators ; eight, members of the 
House of Representatives ; one. Secretary of the Interior ; 
three, judges of the state Supreme Court. It is certainly 
remarkable that so many able men should have been at the 
same time members of the legislature of a young back- 
woods state. The influence of close association with these 
men during the formative period of Lincoln's life can 
hardly be overestimated. 

It was at this session of the legislature that an event 
occurred which showed the thorough honesty of the man. 
The delegation from his county had been pledged to use 
all honorable efforts to secure the removal of the state 
capital to Springfield. The matter was put into Lincoln's 
hands. He was promised the support of influential men 
if he in turn would support another measure which he 
believed to be wrong. This he refused to do. The influ- 
ence brought to bear upon him both by those who wished 
the capital at Springfield and by those interested in the 
other measure was very great. There was an all-night 
meeting of interested members. Later there was another 
meeting, at which there were present others who were not 



20 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

members of the legislature but who were interested in one 
or another of the measures being considered. A long session 
was closed with the following declaration by Mr. Lincoln : 

You may burn my body to ashes and scatter them to the winds of 
heaven ; you may drag down my soul to the regions of darkness and 
despair to be tormented forever ; but you will never get me to sup- 
port a measure which I believe to be wrong, although by doing so I 
may accomplish that which I believe is right. 

At the close of this session of the. legislature Lincoln 
moved to Springfield and became the law partner of John T. 
Stuart. He was elected to the legislature in 1834 and 
served till 1842. In 1842 he married Mary Todd, a bril- 
liant, ambitious, and highly educated girl. 

In 1 84 1 Lincoln's friends offered to support him for the 
office of governor of his state, but he declined, as he wished 
to go to Congress. He was elected a member of the House 
of Representatives in 1846. At the close of his term in 
Congress he seemed to have done with politics. His friends 
wished him to take the governorship of the territory of 
Oregon, believing that it would soon be admitted as a state 
and that he could be elected to the Senate, but his wife 
was unwilling to go so far west. 

Lincoln had not yet paid all the indebtedness incurred 
through the failure of the New Salem store years before ; 
his father and mother were dependent upon him for many 
of the necessaries of life, and in various ways he was help- 
ing other relatives. His own family was growing and he 
needed to be earning money, so he at once resumed the 
practice of law. 

Lincoln was very popular wherever he went. To all he 
was sympathizing and kind-hearted. Upon the circuit he 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 21 

was unassuming, kind, and friendly. He was remarkably 
generous to young lawyers just entering upon their pro- 
fession. It is said that no young lawyer ever practiced with 
Lincoln who did not throughout his after life have a great 
personal regard for him. 

Lincoln had comparatively few cases of large importance. 
In the main they were litigations about boundary lines, 
deeds, damages by wandering cattle, and quarrels at county 
festivities. When a client came to him his first effort was 
to arrange matters so as to avoid a suit if possible. In a 
law lecture given about 1850 he said: 

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise 
whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is 
often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peace- 
maker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. 
There will still be business enough. Never stir up litigation. A worse 
man can scarcely be found than he who habitually overhauls the regis- 
ter of deeds in search of defective titles whereon to stir up a strife 
and put money in his pocket. A moral tone ought to be infused into 
the profession which should drive such men out of it. 

To the astonishment of his clients and the wrath of his 
fellow-lawyers Lincoln was very moderate in his charges. 
On one occasion Judge Davis remonstrated with him, say- 
ing: "You are pauperizing this court, Mr. Lincoln; you 
are ruining your fellows. Unless you quit this ridiculous 
policy, we shall all have to go to farming." Lincoln, how- 
ever, made no change in his habits in this respect. In 
1847 the total earnings of Lincoln & Herndon were only 
about ^1500. For the ten years preceding his election 
as President, Lincoln's earnings averaged from $2000 to 
$3000 a year. 



22 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

The moral make-up of Lincoln is indicated by the fact 
that he never undertook a cause, of doubtful morality. He 
was a very effective jury lawyer, largely because people 
believed him to be thoroughly honest. His knowledge of 
the common people and of human nature was remarkable. 
He made more of the equities of the case than of the tech- 
nicalities of the law. His chief strength was his skill in 
examining witnesses. Judge Scott said of him that much 
of the force of his argument lay in his logical statement of 
the facts of the case. Besides, he had the faculty of mak- 
ing the jury believe that they were trying the case and that 
he was their assistant. 

There has been a general impression that Lincoln never 
rose to the first rank in his profession. This has probably 
come from the fact that the public has been interested in 
his political rather than his professional career. From 1840 
to 1 86 1 he had nearly one hundred cases before the Illinois 
Supreme Court, though in this period he was two years in 
Congress and spent much time in opposing the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise. This record was not exceeded 
by any of Lincoln's Illinois contemporaries. 

Among his important cases was one for the Illinois Cen- 
tral Railroad, the case really involving the existence of the 
road. Lincoln won the case and presented a bill for $2000. 
The officer to whom it was presented said, "Why, this is as 
much as a first-class lawyer would have charged." Lincoln 
was incensed and withdrew the bill. Consulting with lead- 
ing lawyers, they all agreed that $5000 would be a mod- 
erate charge. Lincoln sued the company for that amount 
and won his case. It is said that this is the only case in 
which he sued for a fee. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 23 

From 1849 to 1857 Lincoln gave himself up to the practice 
of his profession, but the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
in 18 54 aroused him as nothing up to that time seems to have 
done. He had early put himself on record in opposition to 
slavery. The Illinois legislature passed resolutions in regard 
to slavery of which Lincoln, then a member of the legislature, 
did not approve. He and Daniel Stone were the only mem- 
bers of the legislature opposed to them. They drew up and 
signed a document protesting against the action taken. 

At the time of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which repealed 
the Missouri Compromise, Richard Yates was a candidate for 
Congress from Lincoln's district. Lincoln volunteered to 
speak for him, the agreement being that he should make his 
whole argument against the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Stephen 
A. Douglas by his attitude on the bill aroused such antago- 
nism that when he spoke in Chicago he was hooted from the 
platform. His power over men was so great, however, that 
he soon began to win his way again and had aroused much 
of the old enthusiasm when in October he went to Spring- 
field to speak at the annual state fair. He spoke for three 
hours to a great crowd. At the close of his speech it was 
announced that Mr. Lincoln would reply to him the next 
day. Lincoln did so. Never had he spoken so well. He 
surprised those who had expected the most of him. The 
people were so aroused that Douglas felt compelled to 
reply to him on the following day. These speeches on the 
3d, 4th, and 5th of October really formed the opening of 
the great Lincoln-Douglas debates. They made Lincoln 
the leader in the fight against slavery. 

Twelve days after his Springfield speech Lincoln made an- 
other at Peoria. In that speech, speaking of slavery, he said : 



24 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I 
hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence 
in the world ; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility 
to taunt us as hypocrites ; and causes the real friends of freedom to 
doubt our sincerity. 

Lincoln was again elected to the legislature, but resigned 
to try to secure his election to the United States Senate. 
The first vote stood: Lincoln, 44; Shields, 41 ; Trumbull, 5. 
The choice finally fell on Lyman Trumbull as a compro- 
mise. There can be little doubt that it was fortunate 
both for Lincoln and for the country that he was not 
elected, as he was left free to do the work that he could 
hardly have found time for had he been a senator. 

A convention was held at Bloomington on May 29, 1855, 
for the purpose of getting all who were opposed to the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill to act together. There were pres- 
ent Whigs, Democrats, and Abolitionists. The excite- 
ment throughout the state over Kansas affairs had become 
intense. The new state was in the hands of a pro-slavery 
mob, her governor was a prisoner, her capital in ruins, her 
voters intimidated. Charles Sumner had been assaulted 
in the United States Senate. Paul Selby, who had been 
expected to preside over the meeting, was struck down at 
home by a cowardly blow from a political opponent. All 
these things made the meeting one of great interest and 
importance. A platform was adopted, delegates to the 
national convention were chosen, and speeches were made. 
All were earnest, but there was a feeling that they were 
still Whigs, Democrats, Abolitionists, — members of sepa- 
rate parties. There had not yet been spoken the word that 
would fuse them into one body. At this point Lincoln was 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 25 

called for, and coming forward he made what many regarded 
as the greatest speech of his life. It has been known as the 
"lost speech" because it was not reported. The reporters 
were so carried away that they forgot to take notes. Mr. 
Medill of the Chicago Tribune was there. He said : 

I well remember that after Mr. Lincoln sat down and calm had 
succeeded the tempest, I waked out of a sort of hypnotic trance, and 
then thought of my report. There was nothing written but an abbre- 
viated introduction. It was some sort of satisfaction to find that all 
the newspaper men present had been equally carried away by the 
excitement caused by the wonderful oration, and had made no report 
or sketch of the speech. 

" The greatest speech ever made in Illinois, and it puts 
Lincoln on the track for the Presidency," was the com- 
ment made by enthusiastic Republicans. In fact, at the 
next national convention, held three weeks later, the first 
Republican national convention, Lincoln was second on the 
list of candidates, receiving one hundred and ten votes, 
though he was not a candidate, no delegates had been 
instructed for him, and he himself had no idea that any 
one would vote for him. It was a spontaneous response 
to his Bloomington speech, which, though not reported in 
words, was enthusiastically written about in all the leading 
Illinois papers, and was more talked about by those who 
were present than any other speech that had ever been 
made in the state. During the Fremont campaign Lincoln 
made more than fifty speeches, all cool, argumentative, his- 
torical. He was building for the future. 

Soon after the inauguration of Buchanan, the Supreme 
Court of the United States, in a decision of the Dred Scott 
case, declared that a negro could not sue in the United 



26 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

States courts and that Congress could not prohibit slavery 
in the territories. This decision aroused the North as 
nothing had done before. Douglas hastened home to calm 
his constituents. Lincoln answered his speeches. The two 
men became candidates for the United States Senate, and 
the fight for the control of the legislature was really a 
fight for the senatorship. The question at issue was that 
of slavery. A series of joint discussions between Lincoln 
and Douglas was arranged. These discussions aroused 
the greatest enthusiasm. Perhaps nothing of the kind in 
the history of politics in our country has equaled it. The 
Republicans of Illinois supported Lincoln with unanimity 
and with the greatest enthusiasm. On the evening of his 
nomination Lincoln made an address which he opened with 
the following paragraph : 

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that this 
government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I 
do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be 
divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. 

This was the keynote of Lincoln's campaign. It was fol- 
lowed by the famous charge of conspiracy in which Lincoln 
charged that Pierce, Buchanan, Chief Justice Taney, and 
Douglas had carried out a carefully prepared plan to legal- 
ize the institution of slavery in all the states, old as well 
as new. This charge was argued with great skill. 

In the second of the joint debates with Douglas, Lincoln 
asked him this question, " Can the people of a United States 
territory in any lawful way, against the wishes of any citi- 
zen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits 
prior to the formation of a state constitution ? " Lincoln 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 27 

had consulted with several of his friends before asking the 
question and they had all counseled against it, saying that 
Douglas would say Yes and thus secure his election to 
the United States Senate. Lincoln said that the question 
would put Douglas in an embarrassing position. If he 
answered No, the people of IlUnois would never elect him 
to the Senate ; if he said Yes, the South would never sup- 
port him for the Presidency. Events showed the wisdom 
of Lincoln's course. Douglas did answer Yes. The people 
of Illinois did elect him to the Senate, and the South refused 
to support him for the Presidency at the next election, 
which resulted in two Democratic tickets and the election 
of Lincoln. In a word, Lincoln won the Presidency by 
losing the senatorship. Like all great men he was able 
and willing to sacrifice the present for the sake of the 
future. 

In the fall of 1859 Lincoln made a speech at Cooper 
Union in New York City to an audience that was notable 
even for New York. There were present such men as 
William Cullen Bryant, Horace Greeley, and David Dudley 
Field. The speech made a great impression. In the course 
of it Lincoln said, " Let us have faith that right makes 
might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our 
duty as we understand it." 

This speech was followed by others in New England 
which made Lincoln better and more favorably known in 
the East and contributed not a little towards giving him the 
nomination for the Presidency. This is no place to give 
an account of the struggle between the friends of Lincoln, 
Seward, and others at the national convention. Lincoln 
was nominated and elected. 



28 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Lincoln as President 

Before Lincoln's inauguration' several of the states had 
seceded. Others were threatening to do so. The Repub- 
licans were divided in opinion as to what should be done. 
Lincoln's life was threatened and his friends insisted that 
he should go to Washington at another time than had been 
planned. There was much feeling over cabinet positions, 
as is likely always to be the case. Not a few said that 
Lincoln would be simply the tool of Seward ; but the men 
appointed to cabinet positions were those whom Lincoln 
had determined upon months before. 

Lincoln closed his first inaugural address as follows : 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies but friends. We must 
not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not 
break the bonds of our affection. The mystic chords of memory, 
stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living 
heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the 
chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by 
the better angels of our nature. 

The general feeling that Lincoln would be President in 
name only — a feeling which Seward shared, thinking, 
apparently, that he as Secretary of State would be the 
controlling power in the new administration — was soon 
dissipated. Perhaps no President of the United States 
ever so completely overshadowed his cabinet as did 
Lincoln, although it was made up of experienced and 
remarkably able men. 

For a long time Lincoln was in doubt as to the wisdom 
of the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been dis- 
cussed in the cabinet and which was a matter that many 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 29 

people had close at heart. He heard all parties on the 
question and gave it the most careful consideration, finally 
issuing the proclamation on the ist of January, 1863, set- 
tling a question that had long perplexed him. 

At the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettys- 
burg the oration was given by Edward Everett, the most 
polished speaker of his time. It is now forgotten. Lincoln 
spoke two minutes and said that which will always be 
remembered. These are his words : 

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 
continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the prop- 
osition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a 
great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived 
and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield 
of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a 
final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation 
might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot hallow this 
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have 
consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world 
will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can 
never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to 
be dedicated here to the great task remaining before us — that from 
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for 
which they gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this 
nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom; and that 
government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall 
not perish from the earth. 

Lincoln was tender-hearted in the extreme. There are 
numberless instances to prove this. He could never resist 
the appeals of wives and mothers of soldiers who had got 



30 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

into trouble. The following are a few illustrations of many, 
many cases. 

Let the execution of be stayed until further orders. 

A. Lincoln. 

Postpone the execution of ^ ^two weeks. Hear what his friends 

have to say in mitigation and report to me. A. Lincoln. 

Suspend the execution of -until further orders, and in meantime 

send me a record of his trial. ^ A. Llncoln. 

The following extract from a letter is characteristic. 

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement 
that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the 
field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of 
mine which should attempt to beguile you from your grief for a loss 
so overwhelming, but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the con- 
solation which may be found in the thanks of the republic they died 
to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish 
of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the 
loved and the lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have 
laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 

" The war is over " was the announcement made on the 
14th of April, 1865. The edition of the morning papers 
on the 15th stated that the President of the United States 
was mortally wounded. Two hours later his death was 
announced. 

During the time that Lincoln was President he was 
maligned, abused, vilified, and ridiculed as perhaps no other 
man had ever been, but at his death all the nations of the 
earth paid tribute to his character. As the years have gone 
by the respect in which his memory is held has continually 
grown and deepened, till his place in history as one of the 
great benefactors of the world is universally recognized. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 31 

The feeling that Lincoln had done his work, and the 
regret that he could not have survived its accomplishment, 
is perhaps best expressed in the following poem by Walt 
Whitman. 

O Captain ! my Captain ! our fearful trip is done, 
The ship has weather'd every rock, the prize we sought is won, 
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, 
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring. 

But O heart ! heart ! heart ! 

O the bleeding drops of red. 
Where on deck my Captain lies, 

Fallen cold and dead. 

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells. 

Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills. 

For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths — for you the shores 

a-crowding. 
For you they call, the surging mass, their eager faces turning. 

Here, Captain! dear father! 

This arm beneath your head! 
It is some dream that on the deck 

You've fallen cold and dead. 

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, 
My father does not feel my arms, he has no pulse nor will, 
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, 
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won. 

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells ! 

But I with mournful tread 
Walk the deck my Captain lies, 

Fallen cold and dead. 




Peter Cooper 



32 



PETER COOPER 

1791-1883 

Peter Cooper, manufacturer, inventor, and philanthro- 
pist, was born on the 12th of February, 1791, in New York, 
which city he saw grow from a town of twenty-seven 
thousand inhabitants to the most important city of the 
New World, with a population exceeding a million. 

Peter Cooper came of patriotic stock. His great-great- 
grandfather, Obadiah Cooper, came from England about 
1662 and settled at Fishkill-on-t he-Hudson. His father, 
John Cooper, served in the Revolution for four years as a 
lieutenant in the New York militia. His mother, Marga- 
ret Campbell, was the daughter of General Campbell, who 
served throughout the Revolution. 

At the close of the Revolution Peter's father established 
him.self as a hatter in New York City. He prospered, and 
accumulated what was for those days considerable prop- 
erty, but, like many another, he was not willing to let well 
enough alone. Instead of caring for his rapidly growing 
business in the city, he sought for an opportunity to make 
a home in the country, moved to Peekskill, which was then 
thought to have a great future, established a small hat 
factory, and opened a country store. Customers came from 
the surrounding country and for a time he prospered. An 
earnest Methodist, he built a church and invited all traveling 

33 



34 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Methodist ministers to make his home their stopping place. 
The resources of tlie family were taxed to the utmost to 
care for the numerous visitors. 

Money being scarce, few of the customers of the store 
or factory were able to pay in cash, so the good-hearted but 
improvident Mr. Cooper trusted the farmers, and his little 
fortune dwindled away in spite of hard work on the part of 
every member of the family. Little Peter was put at work 
in the factory pulling the hair out of rabbit skins before he 
was eight years old. This was the beginning of a long life 
of ceaseless labor, lightened by less than a year at school, 
all told. But many boys of his time who afterwards became 
successful men saw very little of schools. 

Hoping to better the fortunes of the family, John Cooper 
began the brewing of ale. Peter delivered the full kegs 
and brought back the empty ones. This business, like 
the other, proving unsuccessful, the family moved through 
what was then almost a wilderness to Catskill, where Mr. 
Cooper engaged in the manufacture of brick, at which Peter 
as usual worked early and late. 

But it seemed that nobody wanted brick. Hard work 
could not insure success to a hopeless enterprise. The fam- 
ily grew steadily poorer. Finally their debts were paid by 
Peter's grandmother, and the family moved to Brooklyn, 
then a little village of two thousand inhabitants, where they 
again undertook the business of brewing and again made 
a failure of it. The family moved once more, this time to 
Newburg, and for the third time entered the brewing busi- 
ness. This time it was a partial success, owing to the hard 
work and good management of Peter, who was now old 
enough to help in directing the business. 



PETER COOPER 35 

Peter was now sixteen years old. From his earliest recol- 
lection his life had been a hard and at times almost hope- 
less struggle. He had been at school but little. He had 
never had a real holiday. But the experience which would 
have crushed some was the training which led to his final 
success, for it gav^e him fixed habits of industry, economy, 
and perseverance. 

Peter was always of an inventive turn of mind. He made 
a sort of washing machine for use in his own home. This 
was probably his first invention. He took an old shoe apart 
to see how it was put together, and after that made the fam- 
ily shoes and slippers, which were said to be as good as 
those in common use. Once he made a toy wagon and sold 
it for six dollars. In various ways he managed to save four 
dollars more. Ten dollars seemed to him an immense sum 
and he was at a loss to know what to do with it. Finally 
upon the advice of a relative he bought lottery tickets. They 
drew blanks, a result which he afterwards declared to be 
the most fortunate event of his life, as it kept him forever 
after from trying to make money through chance. 

After this simple life of toil and hardship, Peter Cooper 
went to New York at seventeen years of age as apprentice 
to John Woodward, a carriage builder. He received twenty- 
five dollars a year and his board. On this he not only lived 
but even saved some money. He was at this time igno- 
rant, uncouth, and awkward, but he was a thoughtful lad 
and had many shrewd ideas. Even at this early day he 
decided that the American people were willing to pay a high 
price for an extra quality of goods. 

While learning his trade Peter took up ornamental wood 
carving, and earned some extra money by working at it out 



36 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

of business hours. He also made several inventions, one 
of them of considerable value. This was a machine for 
mortising hubs, — a work which till then had been done by- 
hand. His prudence and economy pleased Mr. Woodward 
so much that, when Peter was twenty-one, he said to him : 
"Peter, you have done good work for me. I will build you 
a shop and set you up in business for yourself. You may 
pay me when you can." This was highly complimentary 
and a very tempting offer, but Peter's boyhood experience 
had given him a horror of debt, so he declined it. 

At the close of his apprenticeship he went to Hempstead 
to visit a brother, and while there secured employment in 
a factory for making machines for shearing cloth. He 
received a dollar and a half a day, which was very high 
wages for that time. At the end of three years he had 
saved enough money to enable him to purchase the right 
to make and use, in the state of New York, a patented 
machine for shearing cloth. He sold the first county right 
for these machines for five hundred dollars to Mr. Vassar of 
Poughkeepsie, the founder of Vassar College. In later years 
Mr. Cooper liked to tell how elated he was over this sale. 

On his return from Poughkeepsie he stopped at Newburg 
to visit his parents. He found the family in great distress. 
His father had become involved in financial difficulties and 
was about to be sold out of house and home. Peter met 
the most pressing debts and became responsible for the 
others, which he finally had to pay. 

About the time that he began the manufacture and sale 
of the cloth-shearing machines he married Miss Bedell, a 
lady of Huguenot descent. No act of Mr. Cooper's long 
and prosperous life proved more fortunate than this. She 



PETER COOPER 37 

was an excellent wife and mother, and for the fifty-six 
years that they lived together fulfilled all the duties of life 
in the most exemplary manner. 

Many improvements in the cloth-shearing machine were 
made by its inventor, and the venture proved a very profit- 
able one. The War of 18 12, which stopped all commerce 
with England, greatly increased the manufacture of woolen 
goods in this country and so made a large sale for this 
machine. When at the close of the war the demand 
ceased, Mr. Cooper had accumulated sufificient means to 
enable him to go into other business. 

Peter Cooper's payment of his father's debts was charac- 
teristic of the man. He had the highest sense of honor. 
In his old age he boasted that during a business career 
of more than sixty years there was never a month nor 
a week when every man working for him did not get his 
pay, though at times he had as many as twenty-five hundred 
in his employ. When it is remembered that during this long 
period there were several remarkable financial panics, — 
times when nearly every bank in the country suspended pay- 
ment, — Mr. Cooper's financial integrity will be understood. 

When the demand for cloth-shearing machines ceased, 
Mr. Cooper began the manufacture of cabinet ware and 
furniture. He soon sold this business and bought a twenty 
years' lease of two houses and six lots in New York where 
the Bible House now stands. Here he built four large 
wooden dwelling houses. Imagine wooden dwellings in 
that place now ! He was successfully engaged in the gro- 
cery business for the next three years, but this was not the 
business for which he was best fitted. Long before he had 
held that the American people were willing to pay high 



2,8 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

prices for excellent goods. He saw that this country did 
not make the best quality of goods. No satisfactory glue 
was made by Americans. He bought a twenty-one years' 
lease of a tract of land on what is now the section from 
Thirty-First to Thirty-Fourth streets but which was then 
far out of town on the old "Middle Road." Here he began 
the manufacture of glue, oil, whiting, prepared chalk, and 
isinglass. His factory stood where Park Avenue Hotel now 
stands. Through the excellence and cheapness of his prod- 
uct he soon controlled practically the whole trade of the 
country in glue and isinglass. His success was due not only 
to his inventive skill but also to his energy and industry. 

For years he carried on his work without bookkeeper, 
agent, or salesman. He was at his factory at daylight to 
start the fires and prepare for the day's work. He went 
about with a team to gather the hoofs of slaughtered cattle. 
At noon he drove into the city to make necessary pur- 
chases. All his evenings were spent at home, where he 
found time to keep his books, answer correspondents, and 
study new inventions. In course of time the business grew 
to be so extensive and complicated that one man could no 
longer attend to it, and he associated with him his son 
Edward and his son-in-law, Abram S. Hewitt. 

When his lease of the New York property expired the 
business had so grown that a much larger plant was neces- 
sary. Ten acres of land were bought in Brooklyn, on Mas- 
peth Avenue, where the business is still carried on. 

Mr. Cooper was too versatile and too energetic a man to 
confine his thoughts and energies to a single subject. For 
several years he had studied the iron industry of the coun- 
try, and thought that he saw how it could be wonderfully 



PETER COOPER 39 

improved. In 1828 he bought three thousand acres of land 
within the city hmits of Baltimore, on which he erected the 
Canton Iron Works. This was the first great enterprise of 
the kind in our country. At this time the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad was in process of construction. There were 
many difficulties to be overcome, the chief ones being heavy 
grades and sharp curves. Mr. Cooper's venture could not 
be a success if the road should be a failure. The English 
engineer Stephenson had said that locomotives could not be 
run on curves of a radius of less than seven hundred and 
fifty feet, but on this road was a curve with a radius of only 
one hundred and fifty feet. Mr. Cooper did not believe that 
the limit of invention had been reached. He planned and 
built a locomotive, the first in America which would make 
the required curve, thus saving the Baltimore and Ohio road 
from bankruptcy and himself from great loss. 

A few years later Mr. Cooper sold the Canton Iron 
Works at a great advance on their cost, and took his pay 
in stock of the Baltimore and Ohio road at ^45 a share, 
the par value being $100. Some 3^ears later he sold his 
stock for $230 a share. Nearly everything that Mr. Cooper 
undertook prospered, not because he was fortunate but 
because he studied conditions long and carefully before 
going into an undertaking. After selling his Canton prop- 
erty Mr. Cooper engaged in the manufacture of iron in 
New York, and succeeded in using anthracite coal in pud- 
dling iron. He also manufactured wire in Trenton, New 
Jersey, and operated at Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, the 
largest blast furnaces then in existence. In order to con- 
trol the manufacture he bought the Andover iron mines 
and built a railroad eight miles long to bring the ore to 



40 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

the furnaces. The whole plant was afterwards known as the 
Ironton Iron Works. It was here that the first wrought-iron 
beams for fireproof buildings were made. 

Mr. Cooper was Mr. Field's ablest helper in building 
the Atlantic cable. When others became discouraged and 
advised abandoning the enterprise, he never lost heart. 
For twenty years he was president of the New York, New- 
foundland and London Telegraph Company, and to him, as 
much as to any one man, is due the 'success of the Atlantic 
cable. Although the first one ceased to work after four or 
five hundred messages had been sent, and the second was 
lost when nearly laid, Mr. Cooper's courage did not fail 
him. He saw that the work of the first cable had dem- 
onstrated the practicability of the scheme and that success 
depended only upon working out details. 

Mr. Cooper was always deeply interested in public affairs, 
particularly in the affairs of his own city. He served one 
year as alderman and three years as assistant alderman. 
He was instrumental in getting paid fire and police depart- 
ments, a good water supply, and free schools. In the latter 
he took a great and lasting interest. He was a member 
of the first board of commissioners of public schools. 

He was an enthusiastic supporter of the war for the 
Union, being the first man to pay money towards a war 
loan. Being too old to serve himself, he sent about twenty 
substitutes. 

He believed that the general government should issue 
paper money exclusively, and holding these views, con- 
sented to become the candidate of the Greenback party for 
the Presidency. 




Cooper Union 



41 



42 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Cooper Union 

Mr. Cooper's experience as a struggling apprentice had 
shown him the needs and the Hmitations of apprentices. 
No doubt it was his interest in this class that led to the 
establishment of Cooper Union. He wished to help those 
apprentices who tried to help themselves. He also wished 
to provide innocent and instructive amusements to take the 
place of those that were coarse or vicious. In 1854 he 
began the erection of a six-story, fireproof building. Fully 
completed and equipped it cost Mr. Cooper, with the land 
it occupied, more than $900,000. 

Cooper Union was established for the advancement of 
science and art. At an annual meeting of the trustees 
Mr. Cooper said : 

Feeling, as I always have, my own want of education, and more 
especially my own want of scientific knowledge, as applicable to the 
various callings in which I have been engaged, it was this want of my 
own, which I felt so keenly, that led me, in deep sympathy for those 
who I knew would be subject to the same wants and inconveniences 
that I had encountered — it was this feeling which led me to provide 
an institution where a course of instruction would be open and free to 
all who felt a want of scientific knowledge, as applicable to any of the 
useful purposes of life. 

Having started in life with naked hands and an honest purpose, I 
persevered through long years of trial and effort to obtain the means 
to erect this building, which is now entirely devoted, with all its rents 
and revenue, of every name and nature, to the advancement of science 
and art. Believing, as I do, that science is a rule or law of God by 
which the movements of the material creation are rendered intelligible 
to man ; that science itself is nothing more nor less than a knowledge 
of this law or rule actually demonstrated by the experience of man- 
kind ; believing this, I have given the labors of a long life to the 



PETER COOPER 43 

advancement and diffusion of scientific knowledge, feeling assured 
that when Christianity itself is felt in all its purity, power, and force, 
when it is relieved of all its creeds and systems of human device, it 
will then be found to be a simple system — a science or rule of life 
to guide and regulate the action of mankind. 

It is difficult to estimate the value of Cooper Union ; this 
great institution with its lecture hall, where instruction on 
a great variety of subjects is absolutely free, its library, 
its reading room, its day and evening classes in engineer- 
ing, chemistry, natural philosophy, photography, telegraphy, 
wood engraving, painting, and many other subjects. It is 
impossible to tell how many have here had their first inspi- 
ration in life, and how far reaching have been the conse- 
quences. 

The reception of the news of Mr. Cooper's death showed 
what the world thinks of a good and unselfish man. People 
of all classes mourned his death. Ministers of all creeds 
praised him. Thousands paid personal respect to his mem- 
ory. Courts, city councils, and legislatures adjourned, and 
business houses were closed on the day of his funeral. 
Three thousand five hundred students of Cooper Union 
dropped flowers on his coffin. 

The life of such a man as Peter Cooper is inspiring. 
Contrast the life of a man who strives. with untiring indus- 
try to accumulate a fortune to be used in doing good to his 
fellow-men with the life of one who accumulates a fortune by 
questionable means for selfish purposes and with nothing 
else in mind. Mr. Cooper will long be remembered. His 
good work will continue indefinitely. In no fair sense can 
he be said to be dead. 

'T is ever wrong to say a good man dies. 



"■■x^ 




Mary Lyon 



44 



MARY LYON 

1 797- 1 849 

On the 28th of February, 1797, in the little town of 
Buckland, amid the mountains of western Massachusetts, 
was born one who was, all things considered, perhaps the 
most remarkable woman our country has produced. To 
Mary Lyon is due far greater honor than has yet been 
accorded her. 

She was the fifth of seven children, only one of whom 
was a boy. They lived in a little one-story farmhouse. 
The father, Aaron Lyon, a good and earnest man, beloved 
by all his neighbors, struggled to win from a sterile Massa- 
chusetts farm support for a numerous family. He died at 
the age of forty-five, leaving his family well-nigh helpless. 
Mary was then not quite six years old. 

The mother was a remarkable woman. She carried on the 
farm, supported the children, and kept the family together. 
Though she worked early and late she was always cheer- 
ful. There was no money for candy or toys for her little 
ones, but they always had a beautiful flower garden, which 
Mrs. Lyon said cost only a little extra work, and there was 
fruit in abundance. In after years Mary said, " No such 
strawberries ever grew anywhere else, never such rareripes, 
so large and so yellow, and never were peaches so delicious 
and so fair as grew on that favored farm." 

45 



46 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

One by one Mary's sisters married and left home. When 
Mary was fourteen her mother married again and moved to 
the state of New York, taking the two youngest girls with 
her. Mary remained and kept house for her brother, who 
was then twenty-three years of age. Later her brother 
married, but she made her home with him until she was 
twenty-one, when he moved to New York and the beloved 
home was given up. 

Mary Lyon's opportunities for gaining an education were 
very limited. In her early days she had but little schooling. 
While she was her brother's housekeeper she received a 
dollar a week for her services. She used this money in 
buying books and preparing for more advanced education. 
She also earned, by spinning and weaving for the neighbors, 
some additional money, which was saved for the time when 
she could attend school. 

There was little in her surroundings that tended to stim- 
ulate the young girl. No one in her town had ever been 
distinguished for education or for any accomplishment. It 
would not have been strange had she led the life of those 
around her. But she early showed that she possessed ex- 
traordinary ability. She had a quick mind and a memory 
that was phenomenal. In four days she learned what other 
pupils took a term to master. She committed the rules of 
Adams's Latin Grammar in three days. She made similar 
progress in arithmetic. She was fond of school and in love 
with learning, but the poverty of the family was so great that 
but little of her time could be spared for study. The greater 
part of her day was spent in sewing, knitting, and spinning. 

When her brother married she was free to give her time 
wholly to securing the desired education. She taught for 



MARY LYON 47' 

a while for seventy-five cents a week and saved all the 
money. She also worked during her spare hours at sewing, 
spinning, and weaving. A friend said of her, " She is all 
intellect and does not know that she has a body to care for." 

When she was twenty years old she had saved enough 
money to enable her to enter Sanderson Academy at Ash- 
field. This was the first good school she had ever attended. 
At the end of one term her money was all gone, but her 
work had been so remarkable that the trustees offered her 
free tuition for another term. She was by far the best 
scholar in the school. One of her teachers said, " I should 
like to see what she would make if she could be sent to 
college." But in those days there was not a college in all 
this broad land of ours that would open its doors to a woman. 
She left this school to engage in teaching, which she expected 
to make her life work. She was known as the most gifted 
pupil who had ever attended the academy. Between terms 
she studied, giving especial attention to one subject at a 
time. She spent some time studying science in the family 
of the Reverend Edward Hitchcock, afterwards president of 
Amherst College. She also devoted some time to drawing, 
painting, penmanship, and other subjects. 

At twenty-four years of age, having saved some money, 
she attended a school at Byfield, kept by the Reverend Joseph 
Emerson. Immediately after completing her year at Byfield 
she was appointed an assistant teacher at Sanderson Acad- 
emy, where she had once been a pupil. This was remark- 
able, because no woman had ever before held the position. 

A little later, Miss Grant, one of the teachers at Byfield, 
started a school at Derry, New Hampshire, and chose Miss 
Lyon as her assistant. She was very happy in her work 



48 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

there, but as the sessions were held in the summer only, 
she opened a school in her native town of Buckland. She 
had twenty-five pupils the first term, and ninety the last. 
A building was erected for the school. The pupils were 
boarded for a dollar and a quarter a week, and Miss Lyon 
charged twenty-five cents a week for tuition. In this way 
people of little means were enabled to secure an education. 
She was asked to locate there permanently, and might 
have done so had not Miss Grant, who had had the sum- 
mer school at Derry, opened a school at Ipswich, Massa- 
chusetts, and invited Miss Lyon to become her assistant. 
For six years they had a large and successful school. 
Miss Lyon proved to be a popular and stimulating teacher. 
She would often say : 

Young ladies, you are here at great expense. Your board and 
tuition cost a great deal, and your time ought to be worth more than 
both ; but in order to get an equivalent for the money you are spend- 
ing, you must be systematic, and that is impossible unless you have a 
regular hour for rising. . . . Persons who run around all day for the 
half hour they have lost in the morning never accomplish much. You 
may know them by the rip in the glove, a string pinned to the bonnet, 
a shawl left on the balustrade, which they had no time tojiang up, 
they were in such a hurry to catch their lost thirty minutes. You will 
see them opening their books and trying to study at the time of general 
exercises in school, but it is a fruitless race, they will never overtake 
their lost half hour. 

Mount Holyoke 

It was while teaching at Ipswich that Miss Lyon formed 
the idea of establishing a school for the higher education of 
women. There was a prejudice against schools for girls. 
Many prominent people thought it wrong for girls to have 



MARY LYON 49 

the same advantages in education as boys. Very few sym- 
pathized with Miss Lyon in her views regarding higher 
education for women. She was told that girls would never 
become lawyers, or doctors, or ministers, and that there- 
fore they had no need of a higher education. She was 
asked if she thought women would be better housekeepers, 
or wives, or mothers, if they were liberally educated. In 
vain she talked with college presidents and learned minis- 
ters. Nearly all of them were without interest in the mat- 
ter. But Mary Lyon was not one to become discouraged 
by opposition. She tried, but without success, to have the 
school at Ipswich endowed. For two years she thought 
and prayed over the matter. 

She had the greatest sympathy for poor girls, and she 
wished for " a seminary which should be so moderate in its 
expenses as to be open to the daughters of farmers and 
artisans, and to teachers who might be mainly dependent 
for their support on their own exertions." She said that 
a school should be established in which the cost of tuition, 
room, board, lights, fuel, and washing should not exceed 
sixty dollars a year. 

When about thirty years of age she received an offer of 
marriage that would mean for her a happy life. She said, 
" If I take the husband, I cannot have the seminary." She 
did not hesitate in her choice, and it is well for our country 
that she thought the seminary of the greater importance. 
Had she married, it is probable that higher education for 
women would have been delayed for a generation. Certainly 
there would have been no Mount Holyoke Seminary, and 
the inestimable good which that institution has done would 
have been lost. 



50 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Only here and there a person whom Mary Lyon con- 
sulted believed it wise to establish such a school as she 
had in mind. The more opposition she met with, the more 
determined she became. To a friend she wrote : 

During the past year my heart has so yearned over the adult 
female youth in the common walks of life that it has sometimes 
seemed as though a fire were shut up in my bones. 

She resigned her position at Ipswich and went from house 
to house collecting funds for the new school. Women gave 
the first thousand dollars. In spite of indifference, opposi- 
tion, and ignorance, the necessary funds were finally raised, 
and on the 3d of October, 1836, the corner stone of the 
building was laid. Miss Lyon wrote: 

It was a day of deep interest. The stones and brick and mortar 
speak a language which vibrates through my very soul. Had I a 
thousand lives I could sacrifice them all in suffering and hardship for 
the sake of Mount Holyoke Seminary. Did I possess the greatest 
fortune, I could readily relinquish it all, and become poor, and more 
than poor, if its prosperity should demand it. 

Miss Lyon said that her salary should never be more 
than two hundred dollars a year with board, and no assistant 
could expect more than she received. She said that the 
girls, whether rich or poor, must do their part of the house- 
work. Her ideas were ridiculed. People said that teachers 
could not be had for such salaries, and that girls would not 
go to school and do housework. The history of Mount 
Holyoke is the answer to these criticisms. 

The school was opened in the fall of 1837. The grounds 
and buildings had cost about ;^70,ooo. While there were 
accommodations for only about eighty-five students, more 



MARY LYON 



51 



than three hundred applied for admission, and one hundred 
and sixteen were present at the opening. Three years later 
the buildings were sufficiently enlarged to accommodate two 
hundred and fifty students. 

Students came not from Massachusetts alone but from 
nearly every state in the Union and from several foreign 
countries. While 
Miss Lyon had 
in mind the 
young women 
who were unable 
to attend expen- 
sive schools, and 
for that reason 
the expense was 
limited to one 
dollar and a 
quarter a week, 
from the outset 
there were many 
girls from 
wealthy famihes, 
and pupils left other popular and fashionable schools to 
attend Mount Holyoke. The intellectual tone and moral 
standing of the school were unexcelled. 

Miss Lyon died March 5, 1849, having contracted a con- 
tagious disease which broke out in the school a month 
before. The mourning caused by her death was wide- 
spread. All her pupils were her friends, and they were to 
be found in every state in the Union and in many foreign 
lands. 




Maiy Lyon Hall 



52 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Few have done so much for others.asr/did Mary Lyon, 
and still fewer have started movements that continue to 
grow and increase in usefulness. Her work has gone 
steadily on. The school has grown from year to year. 
Nearly half a million dollars is now invested in the institu- 
tion. More than seven thousand students have been edu- 
cated there, and nearly three fourths of them have become 
teachers or missionaries. 

Mary Lyon is dead, but who can say when her influence 
will cease .? Every American girl who has received or is 
receiving a higher education owes her a debt of gratitude 
which can never be paid but which may be recognized by 
"lending a hand " in forwarding the work which she began. 

The work of Mary Lyon will be very inadequately 
measured if one considers merely her life work and the 
influence of Mount Holyoke, great as both of these are. 
The record of her life will ever stand as an inspiration for 
every ambitious American girl, and thousands will live 
higher, nobler, and more useful lives because of hers. 
That influence will never cease. 

Few girls begin life under more unfavorable circum- 
stances or have to surmount more formidable obstacles 
than did Mary Lyon. What girl would not think her life 
a grand success were she able to accomplish even a hun- 
dredth part as much good as did Miss Lyon ? 

She gave her life for others, that those others might 
know and have fuller, sweeter, and richer lives. The gift 
was not in vain. She aroused and inspired thousands in 
her lifetime, and they in turn touched others ; so that we 
now have not only Mount Holyoke College but scores of 
similar institutions, all doing a grand work; and this has 



MARY LYON 53 

come about sooner and the work is being better done because 
Mary Lyon lived, and lived the Ufe she did. 

Mary Lyon, Catherine Beecher, and Emma Willard are 
great names in the educational history of our country, but 
that of Mary Lyon is easily first. 

One of the few immortal names 
That were not born to die. 




Horace Greeley 



54 



HORACE GREELEY 

1S11-1S72 

Horace Greeley, the third of seven children, was born 
on a farm near Amherst, New Hampshire, February 3, 
181 r. His father, Zaccheus Greeley, was of Scotch-Irish 
lineage, the stock from which so many successful Americans 
have sprung ; while his mother, whose maiden name was 
Woodburn, was a woman of uncommon energy. She not 
only cared for the family but also worked in the garden, 
and on occasion in the field ; it was even said of her that 
she could rake more hay than any man in the community. 

Mrs. Greeley had a liking for books, and in the long even- 
ings she would read aloud or tell stories or sing to her 
children. From her Horace inherited his love of study. 
He says that she was his first teacher, and that the stories 
she told awakened in him a thirst for knowledge and a 
great interest in history. He did not remember the time 
when he could not read. His love for learning was instinc- 
tive, and at two years of age he would pore over the Bible 
and ask questions about the letters. He could read any 
child's book at three years of age, and any book at four. 

He never attended other than a public school, and that 
no great length of time. He received the greater part of 
his schooling in a small one-story building containing one 
room, with two windows, a door at one end and a great 

55 



56 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

fireplace at the other. Along the sides of the room were 
a slanting shelf that served as a desk, and seats made of 
"slabs" supported by sticks set in. auger holes. These 
seats had no backs. The girls sat on one side of the room 
and the boys on the other. The schoolhouse was unpainted 
and had no pictures or decorations. Plain as it was, it was 
not unlike most of the rural schools of the time. 

The farm on which Horace Greeley was born consisted 
of fifty acres of rocky, wet, and uneven land four or five 
miles from the village of Amherst. The farmhouse, half- 
way up a high, steep, rocky hill, was small and unattractive. 
The Greeleys' neighbors were hard-working farmers, neither 
wealthy nor in want. It was a community of plain people 
with no ideas of inequality. The district school gave them 
their education, the village paper their ideas of the outside 
world. They were orthodox in their religious views and 
regular in their attendance at church. It was amidst such 
surroundings and under such conditions that young Gree- 
ley passed the first few years of his life. 

He began school at three years of age and soon led his 
class in reading and spelling, studies in which he always 
excelled. He was a delicate but not a sickly child, tow- 
headed, odd-mannered, with a lisping, whining voice. Then 
and all through his life he was good-natured and not easily 
provoked. 

There were some twenty books in his father's house, which 
he had read again and again before he was six years old. 
Among the number was "Pilgrim's Progress." He had 
read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It is said that 
he could spell every word in the Bible, but this, no doubt, 
is an exaggeration. As he grew older he borrowed and 



HORACE GREELEY 



57 



read all the books to be had in a radius of seven miles. In 
the daytime he would lie under the shade of a tree and read 
for hours at a time, forgetting even his dinner, noting noth- 
ing till darkness came on. He would gather pine knots 
to give light for his evening reading, and be so absorbed 
that the neighbors would come and go, eating apples and 
drinking cider, without his having been conscious of their 




Horace Greeley's Birthplace 

presence. At a very early age he began to read the Farmei^'s 
Cabinet, a weekly paper published at Amherst, containing 
religious, agricultural and miscellaneous selections and a 
few brief editorials. 

The father of Horace Greeley was no better financier 
than was his illustrious son in later years. Before Horace 
was ten years old his father had speculated in lumber in a 
small way and become bankrupt. His home and furniture 



58 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

were sold by the sheriff, and he was obliged to leave the 
state to escape arrest. Some of the debts that were not 
settled then were paid by the son thirty years later. 

A few weeks after the sale of their home the Greeleys 
moved to Rutland County, Vermont. The whole family 
and all the household goods that the law had left them 
were carried in one sleigh load. They were very poor, so 
poor that the children ate their porridge together from a 
single tin pan, sitting on the floor as they ate. In spite of 
their poverty they were happy, and worked hard and saved 
some money. They lived in the cheapest possible way. 
It is said that in the summer Horace wore only three 
articles of apparel, — a straw hat, usually in bad condition, 
a tow shirt, never buttoned, and a pair of linsey-woolsey 
trousers short in the legs, with one leg always shorter 
than the other. Possibly it was this life that led to Mr. 
Greeley's indifference in the matter of dress in later years. 

" Greeley's Apprenticeship 

When only five or six years old Greeley had determined 
to become a printer, and he was grievously disappointed 
because at the age of eleven he was refused a position on 
account of his youth. 

When he was fifteen an advertisement appeared in the 
NortJiej'ii Spectator, published at East Poultney, Vermont, 
calling for an apprentice. One day Mr. Bliss, the manager 
of the paper, heard a thin, whining voice say, "Are you 
the man that carries on the printing office.'' " 

Mr. Bliss saw before him a tow-headed, awkward, uncouth, 
ill-clad, large-headed youth. 



HORACE GREELEY 



59 



" Do you want a boy to learn the trade ? " the lad 
went on. 

" Do you want to learn to print ? " said Mr. Bliss. 

" I 've had some notion of it," was the reply. 

Mr. Bliss asked some questions, among others what the 
boy had read, to which Horace replied, " A little of 'most 
everything." " Further questions," said Mr. Bhss, " showed 
that he had a mind of no common order, that he had acquired 
an intelligence far beyond his years, and that he possessed 
a degree of single-mindedness, truthfulness, and common 
sense, which commanded respect and regard." 

According to the terms of apprenticeship Horace was to 
work till he was twenty years old and to receive only his 
board for the first half year and his board and forty dollars 
a year for the remainder of the time. 

There was a village library at East Poultney that gave 
Horace better opportunities for reading than he had ever 
before enjoyed, and he afterwards said that he never read 
with so much profit. He joined the village lyceum and 
was a frequent speaker at its meetings. His extensive 
reading, marvelous memory, and logical mind made him an 
effective debater. Though he had a high-pitched and whin- 
ing voice, and possessed none of the graces of an orator, he 
was an interesting and fluent speaker. 

People often made sport of young Greeley because of his 
poor clothing. This he always took good-naturedly, saying, 
"It is better to wear my old clothes than to run into debt 
for new ones." During the whole of his apprenticeship he 
lived in the most economical manner possible, sending all 
his savings to his father to help make a home in the wilder- 
ness of Pennsylvania, west of the Alleghanies. It is said that 



6o 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



Horace Greeley did not have fifty dollars' worth of clothes 
during the whole time from his birth till he was twenty-one 
years of age. He served as apprentice for five years, and in 
that time he visited his parents but twice. Each time he 
walked nearly the whole distance, about six hundred miles. 



If- --S^S SHI 


IpTSp 



Greeley not only became the best printer in the office, 
but did much toward editing the paper, some of the num- 
bers being almost wholly his work. In Poultney he was 
regarded as a walking encyclopedia, and well-informed men 
referred to him questions of history and politics. He was 



HORACE GREELEY 6 I 

positive in his convictions and ready to talk on any subject. 
He rarely attended church, usually spending Sunday in 
reading. He was a stanch Universalist, an ardent Whig, 
and a radical anti-mason. He never used tobacco or alco- 
holic drinks. 

Early in the fifth year of his apprenticeship the paper on 
which he worked was discontinued and he was free to do 
what he chose. He had but little clothing and only twenty 
dollars in money ; but he had a good trade, good habits, a 
strong, well-trained mind, and a great fund of information. 

He first went to visit his parents and spent a few weeks 
with them. Then he worked a short time at Jamestown, 
New York, but was unable to get any pay, so went to Lodi, 
where he worked for a few weeks for very small wages. 
After this he went to Erie, Pennsylvania, and entered the 
office of the Erie Gazette, receiving twelve dollars a month 
and board. During the seven months he remained here he 
spent only six dollars. Of the eighty-four dollars earned 
during his seven months at Erie he kept fifteen and gave 
the rest to his father. After a few more days at home 
he went to New York in search of employment. Walking 
part of the time, and riding on canal boats and towboats 
when he could, Greeley reached New York on August i8, 
183 1, at six o'clock in the morning. 

Many men who have achieved success in New York have 
boasted of their humble beginnings, but it may be doubted 
if any one ever began there under more unfavorable cir- 
cumstances than did Horace Greeley. He had ten dollars 
in money, a few shabby clothes, and not a friend or an 
acquaintance in the whole city. He did not know a human 
being within two hundred miles, Neither his person nor his 



62 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

address was calculated to give any one a favorable impres- 
sion. He had no letters of recommendation, no certificate 
of his skill as a printer. In addition to all these hindrances 
he had little faculty for pushing himself and making his 
own way. 

He engaged board for two dollars and a half a week at 
a combination of boarding house and grogshop kept by 
one McGolrick. For three days he sought employment in 
vain. His money was almost gone and he had resolved to 
leave the city, when a young Irishman told him that printers 
were wanted at John T. West's. Horace was at the place 
at half past five Monday morning, and sat on the steps 
nearly an hour and a half before the doors opened. One 
of the first of the workmen to come was a young Vermonter, 
who took an interest in Greeley because they came from 
the same state. He exerted himself in Greeley's behalf ; 
but even with this advantage he would not have secured a 
place had there not been a job on hand that no other printer 
would take, — that of the composition of a polyglot Testa- 
ment. It was very slow work and the best he was ever 
able to do by working from twelve to fourteen hours a day 
was to earn from five to six dollars a week ; but after this 
work was completed he had several other jobs at various 
places. His work in New York as a journeyman printer 
lasted about a year and a half. 

Greeley as Publisher and Editor 

Mr. Greeley had made the necessary preparation for the 
success that was to come to him. He knew his trade 
thoroughly. He had read extensively, and digested and 



HORACE GREELEY 63 

remembered what he read. At the lyceum at East Poult- 
ney he had had an excellent drill in public speaking, and also 
some experience in writing for the papers. He had learned 
to do hard work easily, and disagreeable work without annoy- 
ance. He was economical and always good-tempered. 

During 1832 Mr. Greeley had become acquainted with a 
Mr. Story, who was the foreman in the office of the Spirit 
of the Times. He had also made the acquaintance of 
Dr. Horatio D. Sheppard, the originator of the idea of a 
penny paper. After considerable consultation the firm of 
Greeley & Story was formed, and they agreed to publish 
a two-penny paper called the Morning Post. Dr. Sheppard 
was to pay them for their work at the end of each week. 
The enterprise did not pay and the paper was discontinued 
at the close of the third week, but its failure did not seri- 
ously interfere with the young firm. They were printing 
Sylvester s Bank Note Reporter and a small triweekly called 
the Constitjitionalist. 

Mr. Story was drowned a few months after the partner- 
ship was formed and his place was taken by his brother- 
in-law, Mr. Winchester ; later a Mr. Sibbett was taken into 
the firm, which was now known as Greeley & Co. 

For a long time Mr. Greeley had wished to edit a paper. 
The young firm had prospered and was worth about three 
thousand dollars. Its members believed that they could 
make a better family paper than was then in existence, and 
acting upon that belief they issued the first number of the 
New Yorker March 22, 1834. They started with only twelve 
subscribers, but sold one hundred copies of the first num- 
ber and two hundred of the second. For three months 
they gained a hundred copies a week in their circulation, 



64 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

and at the end of the first year they had four thousand five 
hundred subscribers. Ultimately the circulation rose to 
nine thousand. During the first year three hundred papers 
gave the New Yorker eulogistic notices, and both the paper 
and its editor became widely and favorably known. The 
New Yorker was in the main a literary paper, though it had 
a political department which was non-partisan. It came to 
be recognized as an authority on political statistics, as in 
later days was the Tribime. The first article by Dickens 
that appeared in this country was published in the first 
number of the New Yorker. 

Although the Nezv Yorker became famous and influen- 
tial, it was never a financial success. This was partly 
because the firm made a better paper than they could 
afford for the price, but largely because of Greeley's poor 
financial management. Possibly the enterprise might have 
made more money had it not been for the great panic of 
1837, known as "The Year of Ruin." 

In the fall of 1838 Thurlow Weed and Lewis Benedict 
of Albany called upon Mr. Greeley and asked him to edit 
a campaign paper to be published at Albany for the pur- 
pose of furthering the Whig cause and especially to discuss 
such questions as the tariff and the United States Bank. 
It was a movement preliminary to the great campaign of 
1840. The ousting of Mr. Van Buren was a matter of 
special interest. The political fortunes of William H. 
Seward were involved in the movement. The close rela- 
tions of Weed, Seward, and Greeley, which existed so long, 
and which were ended years later by Mr. Greeley through a 
letter famous in political history, had their beginning at 
this time. A weekly paper called the Jeffersonian was 



HORACE GREELEY 65 

maintained for a year at the nominal subscription price of 
fifty cents, the deficiency being met by several wealthy 
Whigs. Mr. Greeley began the work with the understand- 
ing that he should be paid what his services proved to be 
worth, and he was finally given a thousand dollars. The 
paper contributed largely to the Whig success in the state 
that year, and to the election of Seward over Marcy for 
governor. It was conservative in tone and wholly free 
from personalities, in which respect it was the reverse of 
its successor, the Log Cabin. 

During the campaign of 1840 Mr. Greeley edited the 
Log Cabin, one of the most remarkable and successful 
campaign papers ever published. Beginning with a circu- 
lation of nearly fifty thousand copies it grew to nearly one 
hundred thousand before the campaign ended. General 
Harrison was a poor man and at one time had lived in a 
log cabin. A Democratic journalist commenting on the 
man made this scoffing remark, " Give him a log cabin and 
a barrel of hard cider and he will be content without the 
Presidency." The phrase spread like wildfire. It led to 
the choice of the name for Greeley's campaign paper. There 
were log cabins in every political procession of the Whigs, 
and hard cider became a popular beverage. 

The campaign was one of the most exciting ever known. 
There were mass meetings, log-cabin raisings, caricatures, 
epigrams, songs, jokes, Tippecanoe clubs, medals, badges, 
flags, handkerchiefs, almanacs, etc. But it was Horace 
Greeley and the Log Cabin that furnished the facts and 
arguments which did most to arouse and increase popular 
enthusiasm. Greeley comprehended the popular thought, 
and his style took the fancy of the public. 



66 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Mr. Greeley made but little money out of the Log Cabin, 
though he made a great reputation as an able editor, a 
zealous politician, and a statistical writer of great force, 
marvelous information, and marked ability. 

The Tribune 

Mr. Greeley had now prepared the way for the great work 
of his life. To the qualifications he had when he made his 
first business venture in partnership with Mr. Story he 
had added much experience as a writer, speaker, and editor. 
He was also widely known and had many influential friends. 
He resolved to establish a paper " removed alike from serv- 
ile partisanship on the one hand and from gagged, mincing 
neutrality on the other." The time seemed ripe for such a 
movement. There were but two really live papers in New 
York at that time, — the Sini, not then a strong paper, 
and the Herald, which offended respectable people by its 
indecency. Both these papers, though nominally neutral, 
were in sympathy with the Democratic party. So there 
seemed to be an excellent opportunity to start a strong, 
clean paper. Whig in politics but m.oderate in tone. It 
was under such circumstances that the first number of the 
Tribune v^dL's, issued on Saturday, the loth of April, 1841. 

Even in those early days it was an expensive undertaking 
to start a daily paper, but though Greeley had little money, 
he was known to be a man of ability, industry, experience, 
and the strictest integrity. 

The paper began with six hundred subscribers. Five 
thousand copies of the first number were printed, which 
Mr. Greeley had considerable trouble in giving away. The 



HORACE GREELEY 67 

expenses for the first week were $525, the receipts $92. 
This was not an encouraging beginning, but Mr. Greeley 
did not belong to the class of men who give up easily. 
Then he had the not uncommon experience of being helped 
by his enemies. The Sun concocted a conspiracy to crush 
the Tribune. The Sun was a penny paper with an immense 
circulation, and it feared that the Tribune, also a penny 
paper and much better edited, would lessen its popularity, 
so attempts were made to bribe the carriers of the new 
paper to give up their routes ; newsmen were threatened 
with the loss of the Sun if they sold the Tribune ; boys 
were hired to flog the Tribune newsboys. The Tribune 
took steps to protect its carriers and told in its columns the 
story of the persecution that was going on. The Ameri- 
can public always desires fair play, so subscriptions to the 
Tribune flowed in rapidly. Three hundred subscriptions a 
day were received for three weeks. The paper began its 
fourth week with an edition of six thousand, its seventeenth 
with eleven thousand, all that its presses could print. The 
amount of advertising had trebled notwithstanding the fact 
that the rate had been doubled. 

Mr. Greeley soon associated with him Mr. Thomas 
McElrath, who had entire charge of all business matters, 
and the success of the Tribune has been due to his good 
business management hardly less than to the genius of 
Mr. Greeley. It was a happy combination. 

The good fortune, or good management, of Mr. Greeley 
in securing efficient associates was shown in many other 
cases besides that of Mr. McElrath. There were George 
Ripley, " Father of literary criticism in the American 
Press " ; Henry J. Raymond, who afterwards established 



68 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

the New York Times ; Charles A. Dana, noted later for his 
management of the Sun; Bayard Taylor, traveler, novel- 
ist, poet, historian, and diplomat, whose first contribution 
to the Tribune was Letters Afoot ; Margaret Fuller, who 
wrote on art and literature ; Richard Hildreth, historian ; 
George W. Smalley, the noted correspondent ; William 
Winter, dramatic critic ; John Russell Young, one time 
managing editor of the Tribune, later editor of the Herald, 
and afterwards minister to China; Charles Nordhoff, noted 
author and correspondent, in recent years on the Herald ; 
and many others hardly less able. 

At the end of its second year the Tribune had a circula- 
tion of twenty thousand, Mr. Greeley began the Tribune 
Almanac in 1841, but until 1856 it was called the Whig 
Almanac. The Log Cabin and the N'ew Yorker were con- 
solidated to form the Weekly Tribune, the first number of 
which appeared September 20, 1841. From the very out- 
set it was influential and successful. It became the most 
widely circulated paper in the United States, running into 
the hundreds of thousands. A semi-weekly edition of the 
Tribune was begun May 17, 1845. 

Mr. Greeley has been called a man of "isms," but the facts 
hardly justify such a charge. He was a man with an open 
mind, ready for new ideas, and if convinced that a thing was 
right, he advocated it, no matter what others might do. 

As he had been poor, very poor, himself, he felt keenly 
the hard conditions under which the poor struggled, and 
his sympathies led him to advocate any plan whereby their 
condition might be improved. He became interested in 
Fourierism, a sort of socialism, and entered into a contro- 
versy over it with Henry J. Raymond. Though Greeley 



HORACE GREELEY 69 

got the worst of the argument, the discussion brought 
about a better understanding of cooperation and did much 
good. The great development of Ufe and fire insurance (a 
form of cooperation) was no doubt due in a large measure 
to the public interest aroused by this discussion. 

From the first Mr. Greeley was an avowed and extreme 
protectionist. His hard struggle with bitter poverty no 
doubt intensified his ideas on this subject. He believed 
in, practiced, and advocated total abstinence, but was not 
at all extreme in his public utterances on that subject, as 
he sometimes was on the subject of the use of tobacco, 
which on one occasion he declared to be "the vilest and 
most detestable abuse of his corrupted sensual appetites 
whereof man is capable." 

Above all else Mr. Greeley was a reformer. Incidentally 
he was an editor, lecturer, author, and politician. His views 
upon temperance, tariff, socialism, capital punishment, slav- 
ery, war, and all other subjects were determined by their 
supposed value to humanity. He was by heredity, training, 
and conviction a Puritan of the Puritans, but it was the 
Puritanism of the New, not of the Old Testament. 

Mr. Greeley had a horror of debt. On one occasion he 
said : "To be hungry, ragged, and penniless is not pleasant, 
but this is nothing to the horrors of bankruptcy." He very 
likely had in mind the bankruptcy of his father, which drove 
him from his native state and brought the family to extreme 
poverty, leaving debts to be paid many years later. 

Mr. Greeley's penmanship was indescribably bad. It is 
said that a letter of dismissal to one of his employees was 
successfully used as a letter of recommendation. Number- 
less humorous stories are told regarding his handwriting. 



70 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

From his young manhood Mr. Greeley was always over- 
worked, doing for years what most people would have 
called too much for two men. The .strain of a political 
campaign was the last straw, and the breakdown would 
no doubt have occurred had success instead of failure 
crowned his efforts. 

Murat Halstead in contrasting Greeley and Bennett 
says: "James Gordon Bennett was a newsman; Horace 
Greeley a man of opinions — ideas, if you please. Ben- 
nett's paper had the larger circulation, Greeley's the greatest 
influence." 

Mr. Greeley cared little for money. He always voted 
against any proposition to raise his own salary as manager 
of the Tribune and against declaring any dividend upon 
the Tribune stock, wishing to put all its earnings into 
improving the plant. Even from his boyhood he seems 
never to have been able to say No to a borrower. It is 
said that from time to time he loaned at least $50,000 on 
worthless pledges. He always knew that he was being 
imposed upon, and once said : " Nine tenths of those 
who solicit loans of strangers or casual acquaintances are 
thriftless vagabonds, who will never be any better off than 
at present, or scoundrels who would never pay if they 
were able." 

Of all the books written by Mr. Greeley "The American 
Conflict " has probably the greatest merit, the first volume, 
which deals with the causes that led to the Civil War, 
being of especial value. 



HORACE GREELEY 7 1 

Mr. Greeley in Public Life 

A sketch of Mr. Greeley that should omit his career as a 
public man would be very incomplete, yet it is difficult to 
sketch that phase of his life briefly or in such a way as 
to make clear his motives. He was always interested in 
public measures and in pubUc life. If one remembers that 
measures were much to Mr. Greeley and men but little, 
his life will be better understood. One who would form a 
just estimate of him must not forget his devotion to prin- 
ciple, his love for his fellow-men, his hatred of sham, his 
lack of culture, his ignorance of social life and customs, 
and the persistence of early habits. 

Mr. Greeley's first active part in politics in a large way 
was during the Harrison campaign, when he edited the 
Log Cabin. During the campaign of 1844 he threw into 
the contest all his strength and energy. He wrote, spoke, 
and worked for the election of Mr. Clay with an ability and 
endurance possessed by few men. He said : " From the 
day of his nomination in May to that of his defeat in 
November I gave every effort, every thought to his elec- 
tion. ... I gave heart and soul to the canvass." 

Four years later, when on the fourth ballot Taylor was 
nominated and Clay defeated in his efforts to secure the 
Presidential nomination of the Whig party, Mr. Greeley 
left the convention hall in disgust, and it was not till four 
months had passed that he could be induced to put the 
name of Taylor at the head of his columns. 

Mr. Greeley had always regarded slavery as wrong, but 
considered it a question with which the North had little to 
do. The seizure of Texas and the war with Mexico changed 



72 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

his opinion, and he said that these movements with their 
avowed purpose made the question of slavery one in which 
the North must be interested. The murder of Lovejoy, the 
death of Taylor, and the attitude of Fillmore drove Greeley 
from the ranks of the "moderates." 

Mr. Greeley had always been an independent Whig, and 
with the disruption of that party went all that bound him 
within any strict party lines. Nominally a Republican, 
chiefly because of the attitude of that party on the tariff, 
he frequently opposed Republican measures. 

In 1848 he was elected to Congress to fill a vacancy, 
and attended one short session of three months. Here the 
habits of a lifetime controlled him. He was not absent a 
day during the session and did not miss a single meeting 
of his committee. He introduced a bill to facilitate settling 
upon public lands. During the whole session he wrote for 
the Tribune. One article attacking the mileage system with 
its abuses created great excitement and led to several bitter 
debates in the House. 

Before i860 Greeley had broken with Seward and 
strongly opposed his nomination for the Presidency, though 
New York was enthusiastic for him. Greeley attended the 
convention as a delegate from Oregon, which favored the 
nomination of Bates of Missouri, for whom he worked with 
great earnestness, both because he believed him the best 
man to nominate and because he thought it the most 
effective way to defeat Seward. As frequently happens, 
neither man was nominated, but instead Abraham Lincoln 
of Illinois. Seward's friends felt, and rightly, that their 
defeat was due to the efforts of Mr. Greeley. The poor, 
friendless printer's apprentice had become one of the most 



HORACE GREELEY 73 

influential men of a great party, of the nation in fact. 
The bitterness growing out of this contest, and the denun- 
ciations of Greeley on the part of Seward's friends, led to 
the publishing of a letter written to Seward by Greeley 
November 11, 1854, announcing the "dissolution of the 
political firm of Seward, Weed, and Greeley by the with- 
drawal of the junior member." Perhaps no private letter 
ever made public created a greater sensation than did this. 

Mr. Greeley was slow to believe that the South really 
meant to secede. He was convinced that when the time 
came to settle that question, if it ever did come, a majority 
in nearly every state would be opposed to it, and that the 
matter would end in talk. When it became evident that 
secession was to come, Mr. Greeley was in favor of letting the 
South go, not because he believed they had a right to secede, 
but because he thought it not wise to try to hold them by 
force. To understand his position at this time and reconcile 
it with that taken later one must not forget his exaggerated, 
almost fanatical ideas regarding individual liberty and his 
horror of bloodshed, which went so far that he could not tol- 
erate the idea of capital punishment for any crime. At this 
same time with apparent inconsistency he said : " I deny 
to one state, or to a dozen different states, the right to dis- 
solve this Union. It can only legally be dissolved as it was 
formed — by the free consent of all parties concerned." 

After the war had begun the Tribune kept at the head 
of its columns "Forward to Richmond," and did much to 
create a public sentiment that made a premature movement 
necessary. This resulted in the disaster at Bull Run, which 
so affected Mr. Greeley that an attack of brain fever fol- 
lowed, prostrating him for six weeks. 



74 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Throughout the war Greeley and the Tribune were thorns 
in the side of the government. His criticisms of the actions 
of the administration and the movements of the armies no 
doubt afforded considerable comfort, if not aid, to the ene- 
mies of the North. His peace mission, his urging of eman- 
cipation, were premature, and harmed instead of helping, 
but a purer patriot was not to be found. His errors were 
those of the head and not of the heart. 

Mr. Greeley opposed Mr. Lincoln's renomination. He 
had never thought Mr. Lincoln a strong man, and was not 
in sympathy with his ideas in regard to prosecuting the 
war. In considering Mr. Greeley's course during the Civil 
War one should remember that both his nature and his 
calling tended to impress him with a sense of his own 
infallibility. His frequent and sudden change of front 
was no doubt due to a combination of honesty and 
impulsiveness. 

It is somewhat singular that while Greeley greatly offended 
his party by his criticisms of the administration, he was at 
the same time most bitterly hated by the South and its 
Northern sympathizers. 

At the close of the war Greeley advocated universal am- 
nesty and impartial suffrage and, with about twenty others, 
signed the bail bond of Davis, which act caused almost uni- 
versal indignation at the North. The abuse of Mr. Greeley 
was unbounded, but he bore it like a hero, saying : " Seeing 
how passion cools, and wrath abates, I confidently look 
forward to the time when thousands who have cursed, will 
thank me for what I have done and dared in resistance to 
their own sanguinary impulses." 



HORACE GREELEY 75 

This act of Greeley's was the most magnanimous and 
disinterested of his whole life, and at the same time per- 
fectly characteristic. 

There was within the Republican party a strong oppo- 
sition to the renomination of General Grant. Greeley was 
bitterly opposed to it, but as time went on it was seen to 
be inevitable, and a national convention of the Republicans 
who disapproved of Grant's candidacy was called. Many 
prominent Republicans were present. It was resolved to 
nominate an independent ticket. Among the men voted 
for for the presidential nomination were Charles Francis 
Adams, Lyman Trumbull, David Davis, Andrew Curtin, 
B. Gratz Brown, and Horace Greeley, — all Republicans 
who had been and were very prominent and able men. 
Mr. Greeley was nominated on the sixth ballot. He was 
not present and it is not believed that he expected or desired 
the nomination, but he threw his whole strength into the 
movement, as into everything in which he took an active 
interest. His nomination was indorsed by the Democrats 
and he would probably have been elected had they given 
him a cordial support, but he had been so bitter in his 
attacks on the Democratic party in the years gone by that 
it was not in human nature for all of them to forgive or 
forget. For the first time in the history of our country a 
Presidential candidate took the stump in his own behalf. 
Mr. Greeley spoke nearly every day for three months. 
He received nearly three millions of votes and General 
Grant something over half a million more. Mr. Greeley's 
defeat was due to a widespread distrust of his good judg- 
ment and to the wonderful hold of General Grant upon the 
American people. 



76 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

The strain of the campaign upon Mr. Greeley had been 
greater than any one could pass through unharmed. His 
wife died a month before election, and for a month preced- 
ing her death it is said that he did not sleep more than one 
hour out of the twenty-four. This and the work of the 
campaign left him a broken-down old man, though only sixty- 
one years of age. Insomnia followed, which resulted in 
brain fever, and he died on the 20th of November, 1872. 

The whole nation mourned Mr. Greeley's death. All 
partisan feeling vanished. The newspapers in all parts of 
the country paid tribute to his worth. The Union League, 
Lotos, and many other clubs and organizations of all kinds 
passed resolutions of sorrow. Cornell University, of which 
he was a trustee, did him honor. St. Louis, Albany, Indi- 
anapolis, Nashville, and many other cities held memorial 
meetings. John Bright sent a message of regret. Con- 
gress passed resolutions of respect for his " eminent services 
and personal purity and worth." 

On the day of his funeral Fifth Avenue was blocked with 
people for a mile. Stores were closed ; houses along the 
route of the procession were draped; flags in the harbor were 
at half-mast; bells tolled from one to three o'clock. There 
were in the funeral procession two hundred and fifty car- 
riages, containing the President of the United States, gov- 
ernors of many states, senators, and other friends. 

All this was in honor of one who had made his way unaided 
by fortune or friends ; whose opportunities were only those 
of his own making; one who through all his life had thought 
more of others than of himself, and more of the truth than 
of all else ; one who always dared to do the right as he saw 
it, whatever the result might be. 



HORACE GREELEY 77 

Greeley is a part of his country's history. Neither his 
name nor his acts will soon be forgotten. The Tribune 
which he established is his enduring monument. No life 
furnishes more of cheer and encouragement to the young 
man who has his own way to make in life and who is will- 
ing to work and wait, and work while he waits. 




Cyrus H. McCormick 



78 



CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 

1809-1884 

It is probable that there are few intelligent people in 
this country to whom the name of Cyrus Hall McCormick 
is unfamiliar. We owe to him, more than to any other 
one person, what has been perhaps the greatest contribu- 
tion to the material advancement of the United States. 

He was born at Walnut Grove, Rockbridge County, Vir- 
ginia, on the 15th of February, 1809. Of Scotch-Irish 
stock, he adds another to the list of successful Americans 
of that sturdy ancestry. His father, Robert, had eight chil- 
dren, of whom Cyrus was the eldest. Robert McCormick 
was a farmer, but had on his farm workshops of some 
importance, as well as a sawmill, a gristmill, and a black- 
smith shop. These gave young McCormick experiences 
and advantages which most farmers' sons do not have, and 
which were well calculated to develop any latent inventive 
genius that the lad possessed. His father was a man of 
mechanical skill and inventive genius, and from him, no 
doubt, the son inherited a bent towards invention. Within 
themselves this family made in wood and iron many things 
necessary for daily life. 

Robert McCormick invented and built a thresher and 
a hemp breaker. He also made some mill improvements, 
and in 18 16 he constructed a mechanical reaper, which was 

79 



8o SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

built upon impractical principles, and after failing in the field 
it was laid away, but Cyrus often saw this abandoned experi- 
ment. No doubt young McCormick's inventive genius was 
stimulated and directed by his father's experiments, and he 
had also the valuable training that comes only through hard 
work. Like all other workers on the farm, he was required 
at seedtime and harvest to be in the field at five o'clock 
in the morning. His only opportunity of obtaining an edu- 
cation was that offered by the "old field school" on his 
father's land. 

He was very fond of watching his father's experiments 
and of experimenting for himself. At fifteen years of age 
he made a harvesting cradle, by the use of which he could 
keep up with an able-bodied workman. The first invention 
which he patented was a plow. 

His father had expended a great deal of thought, time, 
and money on an effort to make a machine that would reap 
grain. Cyrus became interested in the same thing, and 
though his father warned him against wasting time and 
money upon an idle dream, the idea of doing away with 
much of the drudgery of harvesting led him to study the 
ineffective machine that his father had made. The more 
he studied the problem the more he became convinced that 
it could be solved. 

After much experimenting he made a reaper which would 
cut straight grain very well, but which would not work if 
the grain were wet, lodged, or twisted. It was clear that 
such a machine was of little value. A satisfactory one 
must meet whatever conditions existed. 

By 1 83 1 Mr. McCormick had devised and made with 
his own hands a reaper which did very satisfactory work ; 



CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 8 1 

but it had some serious defects, so he made no effort to 
patent it. A year later he had so far perfected the machine 
that it cut fifty acres of wheat in a manner that fully estab- 
lished its practical value. Still McCormick was not satis- 
fied. He made further improvements, and in 1834 took 
out a patent, but even then he was not ready to put the 




Cyrus McCormick' s Birthplace 

machine upon the market. It was not until 1840 that any 
were sold. 

About 1835 the McCormicks engaged in smelting iron 
ore. That had become a very profitable business, and 
seemed to promise more financial gain than the reaper. 
Had their new business continued to prosper, it is quite 
possible that we should never have had the perfected 
reaper ; but owing to the decline in iron and because the 
cost of transportation to market by wagon was more than 



82 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

the value of the product, during the panic of 1837 their 
venture ended in disaster. Then young McCormick, with 
his father and brothers, began to manufacture reapers in 
their own shops on the farm. How often it happens that 
a seeming misfortune is a great blessing ! 

They had a primitive workshop at Walnut Grove and 
made fewer than fifty machines the first year. They 
worked at a great disadvantage, as certain heavy parts 




Shop where First Reaper was made 

had to be made at a furnace a considerable distance over 
the mountain and the matter of transportation was a seri- 
ous one. In the case of the finished machines it was even 
worse, for it was in the West, with its great plains and 
immense grainfields, not in the East, with its uneven sur- 
face and small farms, that the reaper could be used to the 
best advantage. Therefore the machines had to be drawn 
by teams to the canal at Scottsville, from there floated to 
Richmond, then sent to the coast, and from there sent 



CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



on the ocean to New Orleans, and again reshipped and 
sent up the Mississippi and Ohio to Cincinnati for sale. 

It was clear that 
it was a great waste 
of effort to manu- 
facture in Virginia 
implements to be 
used in the West ; 
so young McCor- 
mick started from 
home on horse- 
back, with a little 
money placed in 




First McCormick Reaper 



his pocket by his father, and went to Cincinnati with the 
view of arranging with some firm there to build the reapers 
under his supervision. Here he made a contract with a manu- 
facturer to build 
some reapers, giv- 
ing farmers' orders 
for reapers as 
security. Later he 
went to Brockport, 
New York, where 
he contracted with 
a firm to manufac- 
ture reapers for 
use in the wheat 
Harvesting with Sickle in A Igiers ^^j^g ^^ western 

New York, the makers to pay a royalty on each machine sold. 

In 1846 he began the manufacture of reapers in Chicago, 

experience showing that to be the point most favorable aUke 




84 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

for manufacture and transportation. Mr. McCormick con- 
tinued to improve his reaper and the demand for it con- 
stantly increased. In 1847 he sold seven hundred machines, 
in 1^48 more than twice that number. 

Having associated his two brothers with him, Cyrus 
planned to introduce the reaper into Europe. In 1851 
he exhibited it at the World's Fair at London, where it 
was the most important American exhibit, and was awarded 
the grand prize known as the Council Medal. The London 




Harvesting with Cradle in West Virginia 

Times said that the introduction of the McCormick reaper 
was worth to the farmers of Great Britain the whole cost of 
the fair. From that day to this the reaper has received the 
highest award at every fair and exposition at which it has been 
shown, and has steadily grown in favor all over the world. 
The great Chicago fire in 187 1 totally destroyed the 
McCormick works, but they were rebuilt within a year, 
and now cover more than sixty acres of floor space. The 
reapers go to all parts of the world, not only to the more 



CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



85 



progressive countries, but to Egypt, India, and Persia as well. 
Thousands have been sent to Russia and Siberia. 

It would be a difficult task to determine the value of the 
reaper to the world. As long ago as 1859 Reverdy John- 
son, in an argument before the Commissioner of Patents, 
declared that the McCormick reaper was worth $55,000,000 
a year to this country. If that was so, it is worth very 
much more now. About the same time William H. Seward 




Modern Harvest Scene in New York 

declared that the McCormick reaper moved the line of civi- 
lization westward thirty miles a year. Certainly it is not 
too much to say that great areas of the West that are now 
waving wheat fields would still be unsettled were it not for 
McCormick's invention. It is estimated that the use of 
the reaper saves in labor more than $100,000,000 annually, 
counting a man's wages at a dollar a day. Its inventor 
was elected a member of the Institute of France because he 
had, so the French Academy of Science declared, " done 



86 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

more for the cause of agriculture than any other living 
man." An honor worthily bestowed. 

Mr. McCormick was an inventor and manufacturer, but 
he was more. He interested himself in religion, education, 
journalism, and politics. He was especially helpful to his 
church and made valuable gifts to educational institutions. 

The business, now carried on by his three sons, is grow- 
ing in importance, and Cyrus Hall McCormick is still a 
potent force in the development of our country. 

The settlement of the great West is due in no small 
measure to McCormick's g;reat invention. We read every 
season of the difficulty in getting a sufficient number of 
laborers for the harvest. Suppose the great wheat crop 
had to be cut by hand instead of by the reaper and its 
modification, the great heading machine, that cuts, threshes, 
winnows, and puts into bags five thousand bushels of wheat 
in a day. Bearing this in mind and not forgetting the 
gang plow and seed drill, we will have some comprehension 
of what invention has done to make the great West of to-day 
possible. While no one invention could have brought about 
this condition of affairs, that of McCormick was by far the 
most important and far reaching in its consequences. 

Inventions and various labor-saving devices supplement 
each other. The great wheat crops of the Northwest would 
not be possible without the invention of McCormick ; but 
the crop could not be brought to market without the rail- 
road, and the cost of transportation would be prohibitive 
but for the invention of Bessemer steel, and the full benefit 
of that invention would not have been reaped so far as its 
application to railroad transportation is concerned but for 
the air brake of Westinghouse. 



CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 87 

It may well be said that Cyrus Hall McCormick is a 
part of his country's history, of that part of its history 
which will always constitute its chief glory, — -the conquests 
of the arts of peace. The name of McCormick will always 
be among the very first in the long list of those who have 
contributed to the industrial development of our country. 




Frances E. Willard 



FRANCES ELIZABETH WILLARD 

I 839-1 898 

The ancestry of Frances Willard was such that it might 
have been expected she would concern herself more with 
the welfare of others than with her own prosperity or 
comfort. Among her ancestors on her father's side was 
Major Simon Willard, of Kent, England, who settled at 
Concord, Massachusetts, in 1634. His intellectual motto 
was "Truth for authority, not authority for truth." He 
occupied many public positions of trust and always had the 
confidence of the community in which he lived. Among 
his immediate descendants were two presidents of Harvard 
University, the Reverend Samuel Willard, pastor of the 
Old South Church, Boston, who opposed the hanging of 
witches, and Solomon Willard, of Ouincy, Massachusetts, 
who designed Bunker Hill Monument and would accept no 
compensation for the work. 

Miss Willard's great-grandfather was for forty years the 
pastor of the same church, and served as chaplain through- 
out the Revolution. Her father was a refined, intellectual, 
and religious man, possessing a fine mind and an inflexible 
will. Her mother, Mary Thompson Hill, came from a very 
gifted family whose ancestors were noted for moral courage. 
So Frances Willard's education began, as Oliver Wendell 
Holmes says every one's education should begin, a hundred 
years before she was born. 



go SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

It was in Churchville, New York, on the 28th of Septem- 
ber, 1 839, that Frances Elizabeth Willard first saw the light 
of day. While she was very young her parents moved to 
Oberlin, Ohio, and in the spring of 1846 they moved to 
Janesville, Wisconsin, on the Rock River. Here they 
spent twelve happy years in their " forest home " of which 
Miss Willard has so often written and spoken. Their life 
was a very happy one. The children had to rely largely 
upon themselves for their entertainment, a thing that always 
tends to develop self-reliance. They had " Indian fights " 
and played " city " and "fort " and occupied their time very 
fully in other ways that did much to develop individuality. 
They always celebrated their Fourth of July, though not 
in the noisy manner with which most of us are familiar. 
Very little was made of Thanksgiving or Christmas, and 
nothing at all of New Year's. 

Frances learned to read from T/ie Slaves' Friend and so 
learned to hate slavery. All the children, when very young, 
signed the total-abstinence pledge inscribed in the family 
Bible. This was the pledge : 

A pledge we make, no wine to take, 
No brandy red that turns the head, 
Nor fiery rum that ruins home, 
Nor whisky hot that makes the sot, 
Nor brewer's beer, for that we fear, 
And cider, too, will never do ; 
To quench our thirst we'll always bring 
Cold water from the well or spring. 
So here we pledge perpetual hate 
To all that can intoxicate. 

Not only the ancestry but all the early life of Frances 
Willard tended to make her what she was. One could not 



FRANCES ELIZABETH WILLARD 



91 



grow up in companionship with lier father and mother, and 
live the life they lived, without hating that which was evil 
and loving that which was good. 

When Frances was fourteen her father and one of his 
neighbors secured the building of a little schoolhouse in 
the woods about a mile from their home. Here she and 
her sister were instructed for a year, after which they made 
a visit to the old home in the East, and then attended 
a select school in Janesville. In 1857 they were students 
in the Milwaukee Female College, where their aunt, Miss 
Sarah Hill, was professor of history. 

The two sisters hoped to continue their studies in Mil- 
waukee, but their father desired a more strictly sectarian 
school for his children and sent them to the Northwestern 
Female College at Evanston, Illinois. Frances at this time 
was in her nineteenth year. She was soon an acknowledged 
leader in school and active in all phases of school life. 

She had early determined to become in some way a 
force for good in the world, and as in those days there was 
little open to women save teaching, it is not to be wondered- 
at that soon after graduation she began to teach school. In 
her autobiography she says : 

Between 1858, when I began, and 1874, when I forever ceased to 
be a pedagogue, I had thirteen separate seasons of teaching, in eleven 
separate institutions and six separate towns, my pupils in all num- 
bering about two thousand. 

In 1 871 she was elected president of Evanston College for 
Ladies, for she was at this time becoming interested in the 
"woman question," or, as she preferred to call it, the "human 
question." It was because of the fact that the admission 
of women to many of the so-called co-educational colleges 



92 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



was nominal rather than real that Miss Willard and others 
interested themselves in the establishment of a college for 
women. 

While Miss Willard was dean of the Northwestern Female 
College the Woman's Temperance Crusade began. In Ohio 
the streets of many of the cities and towns were filled with 
women who went in processions to the saloons, singing, 
praying, and pleading with the liquor sellers. While Miss 
Willard took no part in this movement she was greatly 
interested in it and gave her pupils in rhetoric such themes 
as these: "John B. Gough," " Neal Dow," and " Does Pro- 
hibition Prohibit.^" 
When the move- 
ment reached Chi- 
cago the women 
were rudely treated 
by bands of rough 
men, and this thor- 
oughly aroused Miss 
Willard. Soon after 
she made a public 

Miss Willard ' s Birthplace j j ■ -u • u i. 

^ address in which she 

said that this was "everybody's war." She declared that 
she was with the temperance women " heart, mind, and 
hand." She made several other addresses and her services 
were much in demand. She said at the time, " To serve 
such a cause would be utterly enthralling, if I only had more 
time, — ^ if I were more free." The freedom soon came. 
She differed with the president of the university on matters 
of college government, and the difference was so radical 
that she resigned her position. 



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FRANCES ELIZABETH WILLARD 



93 



Her interest in the crusade led her to visit the East to 
study the temperance movement and confer with the tem- 
perance leaders in New York City, Boston, and Portland. 
She saw the mission temperance work in the slums of 
New York, attended at Old Orchard, Maine, the first 
gospel temperance camp meeting ever held, and listened 
to the story of the " Maine Law " as told by Neal Dow. 

After this visit Miss Willard was at a loss as to what she 
should do. All her friends and acquaintances, save one, 
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, advised her to continue teaching, 
especially as she was dependent upon her own exertions for 
her support. Mrs. Livermore advised her to join the tem- 
perance movement and predicted for her a great success. 

While still undecided she received two letters the same 
day, one offering her the position of lady principal of a 
fine private school at a salary of $2400 a year, with the 
privilege of selecting such work as she chose, the other 
from Mrs. Louise S. Rounds, of Chicago, begging her to 
take the presidency of the Chicago branch of the Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union, admitting that it lacked 
organization and financial resources, but saying, " It has 
come to me, as I believe, from the Lord, that you ought 
to be our president." She declined the salaried position 
with its many attractions and accepted the other. This 
was the turning point of her life. 

Of her action at this time she says : 

No words can adequately characterize the change wrought in my 
life by this decision. Instead of peace I was to participate in war ; 
instead of the sweetness of home, never more dearly loved than I had 
loved it, I was to become a wanderer on the face of the earth ; instead 
of libraries, I was to frequent public halls and railway cars ; instead 



94 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



of scholarly and cultured men, I was to see the dregs of saloon, 
gambling house, and haunt of shame. But women who were among 
the fittest gospel survivals were to be my comrades ; little children 
were to be gathered from near and far in the Loyal Temperance 
Legion ; and whoever keeps such company should sing a psalm of joy, 
solemn as it is sweet. Hence I have felt that great promotion came 
to me when I was counted worthy to be a worker in the organized 




House in which Miss Witlard first taught School 

crusade for " God and home and native land." Temporary differ- 
ences may seem to separate some of us for a while, but I believe with 
all my heart that farther on we shall be found walking once more 
side by side. 

Miss Willard entered upon her work with the utmost ardor. 
At first she would not consider the matter of compensation, 
but she had little means and she soon found herself walking 
miles because she had not five cents for car fare, and going 
to meetings hungry because she had not the price of a meal. 
When this became known she was paid a moderate salary. 



FRANCES ELIZABETH WILLARD 95 

In 1 874 she was made corresponding secretary of the IIH- 
nois Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and in Novem- 
ber of the same year, at a meeting held at Cleveland, Ohio, 
for the purpose of forming a permanent national organization, 
she was elected to the same office in that association. At 
this meeting Miss Willard offered the following resolution, 
which furnishes a clew to her spirit and principles. 

Resoh'ed^ That, recognizing that our cause is and will be combated 
by mighty, determined, and relentless foes, we will, trusting in Him 
who is the Prince of Peace, meet argument with argument, misjudg- 
ment with patience, denunciation with kindness, and all our difficulties 
and dangers with prayer. 

Within a few months after she undertook her work Miss 
Willard practically controlled the work of the Chicago, Illi- 
nois, and national organizations. In 1879 she was elected 
president of the National Union, which position she held 
till the time of her death. 

It is not possible in this brief sketch to deal with the 
details of Miss Willard 's work. With the White Ribbon 
movement, pioneer work in the West, visits to every prov- 
ince of Canada, a tour through the South, campaigns for 
constitutional amendments in many states, the editorship 
of the Union Signal, writing several books, working for 
the Temple, the National Temperance Hospital, and the 
Woman's Temperance Publishing Association, she did more 
than the work of three people and did it wonderfully well. 
She was a marvelous organizer and a remarkable presiding 
ofificer. 

She believed in woman's suffrage, believed it to be right 
in any event, and to be absolutely necessary to the passage 
and enforcement of proper temperance legislation. 



96 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

The culmination of Miss Willard's work was the organiza- 
tion of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
of which she was made president. The story of her visit to 
England and her work there is another illustration of the 
many-sided ability of the woman and of her tireless energy. 

In B'ebruary, 1898, Miss Willard was attacked by influ- 
enza, which her physician did not think serious ; but the 
strain of long-continued work led to her death on the 17th 
of the month. 

With the exception of Harriet Beecher Stowe, no other 
woman was so widely known, and perhaps none was so 
beloved. The influence of her life cannot be measured. 
She was an orator of great power and addressed more than 
four thousand audiences ; she possessed great executive 
ability, and hundreds of thousands of people are now work- 
ing together for common ends because of her efforts. She 
was lecturer, editor, preacher, presiding officer, organizer, 
correspondent, and traveler, and in each capacity touched 
and influenced thousands. 

She was not interested in temperance alone, but worked 
for equal suffrage, social purity, labor reform, — for whatever 
she believed stood for the uplifting of humanity. It was 
not so much a movement or a cause that interested her 
as the welfare of mankind. Her sympathies and views 
were broad. Unlike many, perhaps most reformers, she 
was always free from bitterness, and to this fact not a little 
of her power was due. 

A busier, purer, more devoted, and less selfish life has 
rarely been lived. 

The life of Miss Willard shows the marvelous possibili- 
ties of a single person who is willing to devote his entire 



FRANCES ELIZABETH VVILLARD 97 

energies to a single purpose. While Miss Willard was a 
woman of superior attainments, it was not so much her 
ability as her supreme devotion to her work that wrought 
the success she strove for. The same devotion on the part 
of persons of less ability has brought the same degree of 
success in many a narrower field. 




Louisa M. Alcott 



.0>« 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT 

1832-1888 

Louisa M. Alcott was well born. Although her father, 
Amos Bronson Alcott, was an impractical idealist, he was 
of good ancestry and a man of culture and refinement. 
Her mother had a fine physique, untiring energy, and supe- 
rior intellect. She was fond of writing, her letters being 
remarkable for their wit and humor as well as for their 
keen criticism and fine moral sentiments. Mrs. Alcott was 
a daughter of Colonel Joseph May, a member of a noted 
family. Through her grandmother, Dorothy Sewell, she 
was connected with a family remarkable for its ability and 
virtue. With such an ancestry it might well be expected 
that Miss Alcott would be no ordinary woman. 

The hardships and trials of her early life furnished her 
with experiences that she made large use of in her writings. 
They also contributed much towards her development. 

Miss Alcott was perhaps the most popular writer for the 
young that this country has yet produced. Her influence 
has been great and beneficent. She has written effectively 
because she has written chiefly out of her own experiences 
and because her experiences have been similar to those of 
thousands of other young people. The storybook child 
speaks to the real child in a more effective manner than 
any grown person could do. 
L. tf C. 99 



lOO SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Miss Alcott's Childhood 

Louisa M. Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 
November 29, 1832. There were four other daughters in 
the family. Mr. Alcott went to Germantown to take charge 
of a school, but, like every other enterprise with which he 
had to do, it was a failure. In 1834 he moved to Boston 
where he again undertook the management of a school. 
Here for a time he was partially successful, and his family 
were fairly comfortable, though they lived to a large extent 
upon boiled rice without sugar and graham meal cooked 
and eaten without butter or molasses. This was partly due 
to their poverty, but more particularly to the fact that 
Mr. Alcott believed in a strictly vegetable diet. On one 
occasion, when he was discussing its advantages, he said 
that it would produce a sweet temper and good disposition. 
Little Louisa called out, " I don't know about that, father. 
I 've never eaten any meat, and I 'm often very cross." 

The Alcotts allowed their children so much freedom that 
some of their friends thought sufficient care was not taken 
in regard to their associates. In reply to a question upon 
that subject Mrs. Alcott replied: 

I can trust my daughters, and this is the best way to teach them 
how to shun these sins and comfort these .sorrows. They canaot 
escape the knowledge of them ; better gain this under their father's 
roof and their mother's care, and so be protected by these experiences 
when their turn comes to face the world and its temptations. 

Miss Alcott gives a charming picture of their early life. 
She says : 

Once we carried our breakfast to a starving family ; once lent 
our dinner to a neighbor suddenly taken unprepared by distinguished 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT lOI 

guests. Another time, one snowy Saturday night, when our wood 
was very low, a poor child came to beg a little, as the baby was sick 
and the father had spent all his wages. My mother hesitated a little 
at first, as we also had a baby. Very cold weather was upon us, and 
a Sunday to be got through before any more wood could be had. 
My father said, " Give half our stock and trust in Providence; the 
weather will moderate, or wood will come." Mother laughed and 
answered in her cheery way, "Well, their need is greater than ours, 
and if our half gives out we can go to bed and tell stories." So a 
generous half went to the poor neighbor, and a little later in the 
evening, while the storm still raged, and we were about to cover our 
fire to keep it, a knock came, and a farmer who usually supplied us 
appeared, saying anxiously, " I started for Boston with a load of 
wood, but it drifts so I want to go home. Should n't you like to have 
me drop the wood here.? It would accommodate me, and you need not 
hurry about paying for it." " Yes," said father, and as the man went 
off he turned to mother with a look that much impressed us children 
with his gifts as a seer, saying, " Did n't I tell you the wood would 
come if the weather did not moderate.'"' 

Mother's motto was "Hope and keep busy," and one of her sayings, 
" Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it will come 
back to you buttered." 

Owing to Mr. Alcott's peculiar management the school 
at Boston dwindled in numbers till it consisted of his three 
daughters, a white boy, and a colored boy. In 1840 the 
family moved to Concord. The cottage in which they lived 
while there is described in " Little Women " as Meg's first 
home. There was a large barn, which was a favorite play- 
ing place for the Alcott children. They liked to act plays, 
and dramatized many fairy stories. These experiences 
were made use of by Miss Alcott in her books. While 
here she developed a great fondness for animals, which 
shows itself in her writings. She was very fond of out-of- 
door life and says : 



I02 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

I always thought I must have been a deer or a horse in some 
former state, because it was such a joy to run. No boy could be my 
friend till I had beaten him in a race, and no girl, if she refused to 
climb trees, leap fences, and be a tomboy. 

Miss Alcott went to school with the children of Emerson, 
and so came to know him well and to love and revere him 
greatly. She knew him not as the wise philosopher but as 
the loving playfellow of young people, one who took them 
to gather berries, or to a picnic at Walden Pond, where he 
would tell them stories of Thoreau and his woodland pets. 

She never liked arithmetic or grammar and dodged those 
lessons whenever it was possible. Inasmuch as her father 
was almost the only teacher she ever knew, it is easy to 
believe that she was generally successful in escaping any 
study she found disagreeable. She liked reading, writing, 
composition, history, and geography. One of her chief 
pleasures was to listen to her father when he read aloud. 
Her favorite books were "Pilgrim's Progress," Krum- 
macher's "Parables," fairy tales, and the novels of Miss 
Edgeworth. She says : 

On Sundays we had a simple service of Bible stories, hymns, and 
conversation about the state of our little consciences and the conduct 
of our childish lives, which will never be forgotten. 

In 1842 Mr. Alcott went to England to meet friends 
who, like himself, were much wrought up over a scheme 
for a social life on a higher scale. In 1843 this company 
of idealists began life on a farm near Concord which they 
called " Fruitlands." The end of the experiment can easily 
be imagined. The life of the Alcotts there could not have 
been a happy one. Miss Alcott has told the story in her 
"Transcendental Wild Oats." 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT 103 

After the failure at " Fruitlands " the Alcotts returned 
to Concord, where for a time they were so poor that they 
had to be assisted by friends. A Httle later Mrs. Alcott 
inherited from her father a small sum of money, with which 
she purchased a place in Concord known as "Hillside," 
where Hawthorne afterwards lived. Louisa was now nine 
years old. The next seven years, which she passed in this 




Home of Louisa M. Alcott 

house, she declared to be the happiest of her life, notwith- 
standing the fact that it took the utmost efforts of all to 
keep the family clothed and fed. There was little work to 
be had in Concord of a kind for which either Mr. or Mrs. 
Alcott was fitted, and even the brave and cheery mother 
at last despaired. On the advice of a friend the Alcotts 
moved in 1848 to Boston, where Mrs. Alcott secured em- 
ployment as a visitor of the poor for a benevolent society. 
A more suitable person for such a work could hardly have 
been found. 



I04 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

The relation between Miss Alcott and her mother was 
unusually close and sympathetic. Her mother often wrote 
notes to her and left them in her journal to be found 
and read when alone. Commenting on this custom Miss 
Alcott says: 

I found one of my mother's notes in my journal, so like those she 
used to write when she had more time. It always encourages me, and 
I wish some one would write as helpfully to her, for she needs cheer- 
ing up with all the care she has. I often think what a hard life she 
has had since she married, — so full of wandering and all sorts of 
worry ! so different from her early easy days, the youngest and most 
petted of her family. I think she is a very brave, good woman, and 
my dream is to have a lovely, quiet home for her; but I 'm afraid she 
will be in Heaven before I can do it. 

This dream of making a happy home for her mother was 
never forgotten, and was always urging her on to greater 
efforts. No doubt her final financial success pleased her 
far more because of what it meant for others than because 
of what it would do for herself. 

Miss Alcott's literary work did not easily meet with suc- 
cess. For many years she had to take up other pursuits 
in order to earn a living. She had much experience in 
teaching school, but it brought her no enjoyment. Again 
and again she speaks of it in her journal, and never with 
pleasure. On one occasion she says : " School is hard 
work, and I feel as if I should like to run away from it." 

Once, when she was more than ordinarily wearied with 
the work of teaching, she went as a companion for an old 
man and his sister. Her unhappy experience is told in her 
sketch entitled "How I Went Out to Service." She earned 
considerable money by sewing. On one occasion she was 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT 105 

a household servant for about four months, receiving two 
dollars a week as wages. During this time her father was 
on a lecturing tour in the West, and her sister Anna was 
teaching, while her mother took boarders. She writes in 
her journal at the close of her term of service as follows : 

Pleasant letters from father and Anna. A hard year. Summer 
distasteful and lonely ; winter tiresome with school, and people I 
didn't like. I miss Anna, my one bosom friend and comforter. 

At this time Miss Alcott was anxious to become an actress 
and hoped to rival Mrs. Siddons. The struggles that she 
endured in her early life, and bore cheerfully, richly entitled 
her to all the success that later years could bring. 

Miss Alcott as an Author 

Miss Alcott received $5 for her first story, which was 
published when she was twenty years old. It had little 
merit, and the same is true of all her early writings. Other 
similar stories succeeded the first one at about the same 
compensation. She was satisfied with the small sums earned 
and the somewhat cheap notoriety her work brought her. 
It was not till much later in life that she wrote anything 
of real value. She came fully to realize the character of 
her earlier work and spoke of it as " trash and rubbish." 

When she was twenty-two years of age Miss Alcott 
published her first volume, a book of sketches called 
" Flower Fables," for which she received $32. From this 
time on she made progress, though very slowly. About 
this time she gives one quarter's earnings as follows : 
teaching, ^50 ; sewing, ^50 ; stories, ^20. When she was 
twenty-seven she wrote a story for the Atlantic, for which 



I06 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

she received $50. This was a decided advance in the 
amount of money earned, and a great one in recognition. 
She had been writing stories for various weekhes, and for 
these she received from five to ten dollars each. 

Miss Alcott headed her diary for i860 " A year of good 
luck." Her father, whose life had been a financial failure 
so far, was appointed superintendent of schools for the 
town of Concord. This was a position which was very 
congenial to him, and it afforded him a small income. 
Miss Alcott herself was doing better work and receiving 
higher compensation, while at the same time she was grow- 
ing in reputation. During this year she began " Moods," 
her first novel. It was in this year that her sister Anna 
was happily married. 

Miss Alcott was not a scholar, nor was she a systematic 
reader, but she read widely and with intelligent apprecia- 
tion. Her books are not popular and successful because 
of her literary ability, but because of her skill in making 
use of her own experiences and in adding to these her close 
observation of the lives of others. Her sister Anna and her 
brother-in-law appear as the hero and heroine of "A Modern 
Cinderella," and are also found in "Little Women" and 
"Jo's Boys." She probably portrays her own nature, as she 
understands it, in the character of Sylvia in " Moods." In 
this connection the following from her journal is of interest : 

I think disappointment must be good for me, I get so much of it ; 
and the constant thumping F'ate gives me may be a mellowing process, 
so I shall be a ripe and sweet old pippin before I die. 

In 1S62, when thirty years of age, Miss Alcott went to 
Georgetown as an army nurse, but proved unequal to the 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT 1 07 

work. In a short time she was taken down with typhoid 
fever and came near dying. She was never so well after- 
wards, though all her important literary work was done later. 
Her vivid description of daily life in the hospital attracted 
much attention, and she gave the story in a most effective 
way in " Hospital Sketches," her first real literary success. 
The book was written at a time when every one was anxious 
to learn as much as possible of all the phases of army life 
and when the story of the sufferings of our soldiers touched 
every heart. The book was exceedingly popular. Previous 
to this she had experienced much difficulty in securing a 
publisher, but from this time on several publishers were 
constantly contending for her stories, and she was unable 
to write enough to meet their demands. 

In 1865 she went to Europe as companion to an invalid 
lady. While abroad she met a young Polish lad in whom 
she became much interested. He was the original of 
Laurie in " Little Women." On her return she was 
asked by Roberts Brothers to write a book for girls. She 
began the work without enthusiasm and did not regard it 
as a success when it was finished, yet " Little Women " 
is beyond all question Miss Alcott's masterpiece. On 
receiving the first copy she said : 

It reads better than I expected. We really lived most of it, and 
if it succeeds that will be the reason of it. 

It is now thirty-five years since the book appeared, and it 
is still the most popular girls' book that has been written 
in this country. It is published in England as well, and 
has been translated into several foreign languages, being 
everywhere popular. 



Io8 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

At this time she was receiving $500 a year for the use 
of her name and a little editorial work on Merry s Museum, 
;^20 apiece for two short stories each month for the Yout/is 
CoinpaniPti, and from $50 to $100 an article from other 
sources. She had become financially independent. The 
dream of being able to care for her loved ones had been 
realized. She says : 

For years we have not been so comfortable. May and I both 
earning. Anna has her good John to lean on. The old people in a 
cozy home of our own. 

The success of " Hospital Sketches " and the continued 
receipts from " Little Women " enabled Miss Alcott to take 
a second trip to Europe. While there she wrote : 

No news save through N., who yesterday sent me a nice letter with 
July account of $6212, a neat little sum for "the Alcotts who can't 
make money." With $10,000 well invested and more coming in all 
the time, I think we may venture to enjoy ourselves, after the hard 
times we have all had. 

One result of this trip to Europe was the publication of 
"Shawl Straps." Miss Alcott herself was the old lady 
of " Shawl Straps " and the Polly of the " Old-Fashioned 
Girl." 

In 1872 Miss Alcott wrote " Work," which first appeared 
as a serial in the Christian Union. For this she received 
$3000. Earlier in the year, just after returning from 
Europe, she writes : 

Home, and begin a new task. Twenty years ago I resolved to 
make the family independent if I could. At forty that is done. 
Debts all paid, even the outlawed ones, and we have enough to be 
comfortable. It has cost me my health, perhaps, but as I still live, 
there is more for me to do, I suppose. 



LOUISA M. ALCOTT 109 

It is sad to think that success came to Miss Alcott after 
she was in a large degree unable to enjoy it on account of 
illness. She says : 

When I had the youth I had no money ; now I have the money I 
have no time ; if I ever do I shall have no health to enjoy life. 

Her kindly feeling for others, always prominent, finds 
expression as follows : 

Roberts Brothers paid me J2022 for books. S. E. S. invested 
most of it with the $1000 F. sent. Gave C. M. $100, — a thank 
offering for my success. I like to help the class of " silent poor" to 
which we belonged for so many years, — needy, but respectable, and 
forgotten because too proud to beg. Work is difficult to find for 
such people, and life made very hard for want of a little money. 

Miss Alcott died March 6, 1888, mourned by many and 
sincere friends. Through hundreds of short stories, as a 
writer for St. Nicholas and the YoutJi s Companion, as the 
author of many volumes, she was loved by hundreds of 
thousands of American boys and girls. " Little Women" 
is her great work. Among the most noted of her other 
books are "Little Men," "Work," "Hospital Sketches," 
" Old-Fashioned Girl," and " Shawl Straps." More than a 
million copies of her books were sold, and not less than 
^200,000 was paid her as royalty, a large part of which 
was used in adding to the happiness and comfort of others. 




Alexander H. Stephens 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 

1S12-1883 

At the close of the War of the Revolution a certain 
Captain Stephens of the patriot army found himself almost 
penniless. He had been one of the Jacobites who fled from 
England to America, and had taken part in the French and 
Indian War as well as in the later conflict. He settled in 
what is now Taliaferro County, Georgia, and brought up a 
family of eight children. One of his sons became a school- 
teacher, and with his earnings purchased a farm of one 
hundred acres, where on February 11, 18 12, Alexander H. 
Stephens was born. 

The boy was weak and delicate from his birth. His 
father was very poor, and from his earliest childhood Alex- 
ander had to work, doing whatever his tender years and 
frail body would permit. He had little opportunity for 
acquiring an education, partly because he must work, but 
chiefly because there were no schools save what were known 
as " field schools," which were usually presided over by very 
inefficient teachers. Under such circumstances the weak 
and sickly young Stephens, as a matter of course, failed to 
acquire much of an education. He worked in the field, 
the garden, and the kitchen. Up to the time of his six- 
teenth year he had little acquaintance with books. But dur- 
ing this time he had gained a practical knowledge, and had 



112 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

passed through experiences that trained and discipHned him 
and prepared him for the struggles that were to come. 

Cast upon his own resources while still a boy, he learned 
to endure pain and to fight against bodily weakness, and 
he acquired a strength of purpose and a determination to 
resist wrong beyond that which comes to many even at 
maturity. In his journal, written in later years, he says of 
the death of his father : 

I was young, without experience, knew nothing of men or their 
dealings ; and when I stood by his bedside and saw him breathe his 
last, and with that last breath my last hope expire, such a flood of 
grief rushed into my heart as almost to burst it. No language can 
tell the deep anguish that filled a heart so young ; the earth, grass, 
trees, sky, everything, looked dreary ; life seemed not worth living, 
and I longed to take my peaceful sleep by my father's side. 

After the death of his father young Stephens went to 
live with an uncle. He attended school and made very 
rapid progress ; he also went to a Sunday school, where his 
unusual ability attracted the attention of two gentlemen 
connected with the school, as well as that of the minister. 
These gentlemen thought he might in time become a 
preacher, and so resolved to send him to the University 
of Georgia. Not knowing their purpose the young man 
gladly accepted the opportunity. 

In later years he passed the favor on to others. He 
repaid those who educated him, and in the course of his 
life sent about thirty young men through college. In 
regard to these he once wrote to an inquiring friend : 

About one third of these I have taken from the stump and put 
through college. The other two thirds I assisted to graduation, most 
of them at a medical college. Out of the whole number only three 
have failed to refund the money. The three I have alluded to are, I 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 113 

think, scamps, except perhaps one. Nine of the number I assisted 
are dead; five of these died before refunding — two while at school. 
Only four of the number studied law. Six are preachers — four 
Baptists, one Presbyterian, and one Methodist. One of them is (or 
was when last heard from) a man of distinction in Tennessee — a 
professor and an author. Another is at the head of a high school in 
Mississippi, and another at the head of a high school in Georgia. 
Take the whole- lot, all in all, I think very well of them. The per 
cent of black sheep in the flock is small — not more than one in twelve, 
or thereabouts. Of the number I assisted in getting medical diplomas, 
there are now living in the state six, all clever physicians of good 
standing. Two of them died some years ago. 

In one way and another Mr. Stephens assisted more than 
one hundred and fifty young men in getting an education. 
Of his college life Stephens wrote : 

During the four years that I spent at college I was never absent 
from roll call without a good excuse, was never fined, and, to the best 
of my belief, never had a demerit marked against me in college, or in 
the society — the Phi Kappa — to which I belonged. Not a word of 
censure, or even reproof, was ever addressed to me by professor or 
tutor ; and, while I was on good terms with the faculty, I was not 
quite as good with the boys. . . . They were by far the happiest 
days of my life. 

Mr. Stephens was graduated with the highest honors of 
his class. He was very poor, having hardly a penny in the 
world, so he gratefully accepted an offer to teach a high 
school at Madison, in his native state. He taught for a 
time, but found that for him teaching was not the road to 
success and decided to study law. He had saved enough 
to support him for three months if he exercised the greatest 
economy, and he determined to complete his law studies in 
that time and to take his examinations at the end of it. He 
succeeded in his efforts. 



114 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

One of his earliest cases made him famous throughout 
a large section of the state. It was a suit by a mother to 
retain the possession of her child, whose guardian, its grand- 
father, claimed it. The counsel for the grandfather was a 
lawyer of wide reputation. Stephens prepared himself with 
care, and his great gift of eloquence was used to the best 
advantage. He appealed directly to the natural sympathy 
for the mother, but he stirred a no less natural sympathy 
for a young, inexperienced lawyer, slight and delicate, pitted 
against one of the ablest and most experienced men in the 
state. Stephens' address is said to have been remarkable 
both as a legal argument and as an eloquent appeal to the 
sympathies of the jury and the court. Women wept and 
strong men were moved. The case was won. 

This established his fame as a lawyer, and from that time 
on he never lacked clients. He devoted himself to the 
practice of law till 1836, when he became a candidate for 
the legislature. He was a Whig, but very independent in 
his political action. He was opposed by many strong and 
influential men, but his popularity with the people secured 
his election. For several years he served in the legislature, 
part of the time in the lower and for a while in the upper 
House. In 1843 a vacancy occurred in the congressional 
delegation of his state and he received the Whig nomina- 
tion. His opponent was James H. Starke, one of the best 
known Democrats in the South. In accordance with the 
custom of the time, young Stephens met his opponent in 
joint discussion, traveling all over the state. The result 
was the triumphant election of Stephens. 

The first speech he made in Congress was characteristic 
of him. Members of Congress had been elected on a 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 115 

general ticket, and the legislature of Georgia had refused 
to divide the state into districts in accordance with the 
congressional requirement. Having been elected on a 
general ticket, it was held by many prominent members 
of the House that he was not entitled to his seat. In the 
discussion that followed Mr. Stephens actually took sides 
with those who were trying to unseat him, and made a strong 
speech for the district system. A majority of the House, 
however, decided that the Georgia members had been legally 
elected, and Mr. Stephens retained his seat. He served 
seven terms in Congress before the war and five after it. 

In 1866 Mr. Stephens was elected to the United States 
Senate, but was refused his seat because the reconstruction 
acts had not been fully complied with. An illustration of 
the independence of Mr. Stephens is seen in his action in 
supporting Mr. Winthrop of Massachusetts for Speaker 
when the contest was between Winthrop and Vinton of 
Ohio, and he knew that his constituents and nearly the 
whole South were opposed to the Massachusetts man. 

We know more of Alexander Stephens, his real life and 
thought, through his correspondence with his half-brother, 
Linton Stephens, than in any other way. They maintained 
a long, voluminous, and sympathetic correspondence. When 
Stephens was in sorrow he wrote to his brother Linton for 
comfort ; when he was happy he wished to share his happi- 
ness with him. Thousands of letters passed between them. 
They discussed politics, religion, social life, and every ques- 
tion in which either had an interest. Writing to his brother 
once he made use of the following language : 

I am getting tired of this place, and am beginning to think that 
Congress is the last place that a man of honor and honorable ambition 



Il6 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

should aspire to. There is a recklessness of purpose here perfectly 
disgusting and almost alarming. What will become of our country 
and institutions I do not know. The signs of the times to me are 
ominous of evil. I have ceased to take much interest in what is done 
in the House. All is done by party will and for party effect. 

His affection for his brother is shown by the following 
extract from a letter, after the death of Linton Stephens, 
to his friend Richard Malcolm Johnston : 

The bitterest pang I have is that all the world to me is now desolate. 
I have no one to whom I can talk and unbosom my woes. Hereto- 
fore, whenever heavy afflictions of any sort came upon me, for thirty 
years or more, he was my prop and stay. To him my thoughts con- 
stantly turned for relief and comfort. Now that prop and stay is 
gone. I am indeed most miserable. All around me is dark, gloomy, 
cheerless, hopeless. 

During Mr. Stephens' congressional service the question 
of the acquisition of California and Mexico as United States 
territories came up, and he took a very prominent part in 
opposition to such acquisition, against the wishes of many 
of his party friends. Judge Cone, one of the leading poli- 
ticians of Georgia, was exceedingly bitter and was reported 
to have said that Stephens was a traitor to his country. 
Much controversy grew out of this, which culminated in a 
personal attack upon Stephens by Cone, who was a strong 
and powerful man. Stephens was stabbed eighteen times, 
one cut reaching to within a sixteenth of an inch of his 
heart. The doctors declared that he would surely die, but 
he recovered, though one hand was rendered nearly useless 
from the cuts received. Stephens refused to prosecute 
Cone, who escaped with a fine of $1000. Stephens never 
spoke bitterly of Cone. On one occasion when he was 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 117 

writing with much difficulty he said : " Poor Cone ! I 'm 
sure he 'd be sorry if he knew what trouble I have to 
write with these stiff fingers of mine." 

Stephens was one of the first to fear the result of the 
agitation of the slavery question, and although he believed 
in the permanence of the institution, he never lost an 
opportunity to counsel moderation and forbearance. 

After the election of i860 Mr. Lincoln wrote to Stephens 
asking for a copy of a speech that he had made. In his 
reply Mr. Stephens concluded with these words: "The 
country is certainly in great peril, and no man ever had 
heavier or greater responsibilities than you have in the 
present momentous crisis." 

Mr. Lincoln replied as follows, the letter not being made 
public till after Mr. Lincoln's death : 

[For your own eye only.] 

My dear Sir : Your very obliging answer to my short note is just 
received, for which please accept my thanks. I fully appreciate the 
present peril the country is in, and the weight of responsibility on 
me. Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a 
Republican administration would directly or indirectly interfere with 
the slaves, or with them about the slaves? If they do, I wish to 
assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that 
there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more 
danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington. I 
suppose, however, that does not meet the case. You think slavery 
is right and ought to be extended, while we think it is wrong and 
ought to be abolished. That, I suppose, is the rub. It is certainly 
the only substantial difference between us. 

Very truly yours, 

A. Lincoln. 
To the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens. 



Il8 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Mr. Stephens labored hard in pubHc and in private to 
prevent secession, but without success. Like most men of 
the South he held himself bound by the action of his state 
and reluctantly joined in the effort for disunion. It was 
not his nature to do anything in a half-hearted way, and 
when his state voted for secession he put forth his best 
efforts for the success of the cause to which he felt himself 
in honor bound. 

He was chosen vice president of the Confederacy and 
might have been its president had he felt physically able to 
bear the burden of that office. Of the result of that long 
and bitter contest this is no place to speak. 

After the close of the war Mr. Stephens again served in 
Congress, making a faithful and wise representative. He 
wrote a history of the Civil War. To the end his life was 
an active one. For a time he edited a newspaper at Atlanta. 
He opposed the election of Greeley, for which he was bitterly 
denounced by Democrats, North and South. In 1882 he 
was elected governor of Georgia, but died before the close 
of his term of office. His funeral was attended by more 
than fifty thousand people. His memory was honored by 
the adjournment of courts and public councils and by the 
passage of resolutions throughout Georgia and in many 
towns and cities in other states. 

Alexander H. Stephens had faults, as who has not. 
He made some mistakes, as all mortals will. He seemed 
at times to be vacillating, but it must be said that no 
man ever knew him well who failed to love him. He 
struggled with infirmities that would have crushed most 
men. He was generous and forgiving. He was a bene- 
factor to many, and never intentionally did harm to any 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 119 

one. His is a life that calls for much commendation and 
little reproof. 

A careful study of the life of Mr. Stephens will be in 
many ways profitable. We will come to know a really 
great and good man who won success in spite of many 
obstacles and be stimulated thereby. We will become 
better acquainted with an important period of our his- 
tory and learn to understand better than some of us 
now do the feelings of the Southern people just before 
and during the Civil War. 




Leland Stanford 



LELAND STANFORD 

I 824- I 893 

Leland Stanford is an excellent example of what can 
be accomplished by persistent effort. With no opportunities 
in early life beyond what most boys may have, he made him- 
self one of the leaders in the development of our country 
and its resources. 

The Stan fords are of English extraction. One of the 
family settled in the Mohawk Valley as early as 1720, and 
from him Leland Stanford was descended. Leland' s father 
was a native of Massachusetts, but came to New York when 
he was a boy. Leland was born at Watervliet, New York, 
March 9, 1824. His father was an influential farmer, well 
read for the times and interested in the welfare of schools 
and churches. Leland's mother was a woman of good judg- 
ment, strong convictions, and very fond of her children, of 
whom there were eight, seven sons and one daughter. 

Leland, the fourth son, was a good worker on the farm, 
though he loved books better than farming. He was ener- 
getic, quick-witted, and cheerful. He was eager to obtain 
a good education, and his parents were as eager as he, but 
the family was large and the income small, and it did not 
seem possible that they could send a son to college. 

From boyhood Leland had an eye for business. When 
he was only six years old he and his brothers were required 



122 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

to dig the horse-radish out of an old garden which it had 
overrun. When the work was finished Leland proposed 
that the roots should be washed and taken to Schenectady 
for sale. This was done and Leland's share of the proceeds 
was twenty-five cents. Two years later chestnuts were very 
plentiful, and Leland suggested that the brothers gather 
all that they could and hold them till the price was good. 
They realized twenty-five dollars from this work. Their 
father encouraged his boys in such enterprises, believing it 
a good preparation for the future business of life. 

At fifteen years of age Leland was large and strong and 
able to do a man's work on the farm. When he was eight- 
een his father purchased an adjoining tract of woodland 
and told him that if he would clear the land he might have 
the wood and timber. Tall, vigorous, powerful, and eager 
to earn money so that he might secure a better education, 
he began the task. So hard did he work and so skillfully did 
he manage that when the land was cleared and all expenses 
were met he had left for himself the sum of $2600. He 
used some of this money to pay his tuition at an academy 
at Clinton, New York. He disliked Greek and Latin, but 
was interested in science, particularly in chemistry and 
geology. He was a great reader and especially liked to 
read the newspapers. 

He had long been anxious to study law, and the way was 
now clear. After leaving the academy he entered the office 
of Wheaton, Doolittle, and Hadley, of Albany, and studied 
with them for three years. He attended all lectures that 
were given within his reach, and liked to discuss progress- 
ive subjects. Later in life he studied sociological sub- 
jects, reading such authors as Herbert Spencer and John 



LELAND STANFORD 



123. 



Stuart Mill. He was admitted to the bar in 1849. This 
was the year of the great excitement over the discovery of 
gold in California. Three of his brothers went to the gold 
fields and urged him to go with them, but instead he went 
to Port Washington, Wisconsin, where he opened a law 
office. He was prosperous, earning $1260 the first year. 
A year later he married Miss Jane Lathrop of Albany. 
He did not find the life of a country lawyer very congenial, 
yet very likely he would have spent his life there had not 
his house, office, and library been destroyed by fire in the 
following year. This apparent misfortune was a benefit 
not only to him but to his country. 

His wife returned to Albany to care for an invalid father, 
and Mr. Stanford joined his brothers in California. For 
four years he had charge of a branch store among the 
miners in Placer County, besides being engaged in mining. 
He shirked no labor and shunned no privation. In his 
later life he spoke of these early days as follows : 

The true history of the Argonauts of the nineteenth century has to 
be written. They had no Jason to lead them, no oracles to prophesy 
success, nor enchantments to avert dangers ; but, like self-reliant 
Americans, they pressed forward to the land of promise, and traveled 
thousands of miles when the Greek heroes traveled hundreds. They 
went by ship and by wagon, on horseback and on foot, — a mighty 
army, passing over mountains and deserts, enduring privations and 
sickness ; they were the creators of a commonwealth, the builders 
of states. 

While in California Mr. Stanford was elected justice of 
the peace, and though he had to deal with a turbulent 
population, he was universally respected and not one of his 
decisions was ever appealed from. He was energetic and 



124 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

a hard worker, but pleasant and kindly to all, and especially 
thoughtful for those who had been less fortunate than him- 
self. He studied his business carefully and made himself 
thoroughly familiar with the statistics of trade, the tariff 
laws, means of transportation, markets, and all matters that 
pertained to the successful prosecution of the work he had 
in hand. He prospered to such an extent that within three 
years he bought out his brothers and went east to bring 
his wife to the Pacific coast. 

Mr. Stanford was deeply interested in the Republican 
party and was one of its founders. He was its first can- 
didate for state treasurer in California, but was defeated, 
as his party was hopelessly in the minority. Three years 
later he was a candidate for governor, with like result for 
the same reason. He was a delegate to the convention 
that nominated Lincoln and worked earnestly for his suc- 
cess. He did more than any other man to keep California 
in the Union during the Civil War. James G. Blaine said : 

Jefferson Davis had expected, with a confidence amounting to 
certainty, and based, it is beheved, on personal pledges, that the 
Pacific coast, if it did not actually join the South, would be disloyal 
to the Union, and would, from its remoteness and its superlative 
importance, require a large contingent of the national forces to hold 
it in subjection. 

That this was not the case was due very largely to the 
efforts of Mr. Stanford. 

In 1 86 1 Mr. Stanford reluctantly consented to be again 
a candidate for governor. He received about six times as 
many votes as had been given him two years before and 
was elected. He was in close touch with the administra- 
tion at Washington, and though there was at first much 



LELAND STANFORD 125 

disloyalty in California, he had at the end of his term of 
office the satisfaction of feeling that no state in the Union 
was more thoroughly loyal. 

Under the management of Governor Stanford the state 
indebtedness was reduced one half, many improvements 
were made, the first normal school was built, and a state 
militia organized. 

Mr. Stanford declined a renomination for the governorship 
because he wished to devote himself to building a railroad 
across the continent. At that time it was said that the idea 
of building a railroad across the snow-capped Sierras was 
" a wild scheme of visionary cranks," and indeed it seemed so. 
There were great heights to be scaled, wide, waterless deserts 
to be crossed, savage Indians to be contended with, and vast 
sums of money to be raised. But Leland Stanford was no 
visionary. No one knew better than he the difficulties on 
the one hand nor the future of such a road on the other. 

Theodore J. Judah, a railroad engineer, C. P. Huntington 
and his partner Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, and others 
joined with Mr. Stanford in this great enterprise, the suc- 
cess of which meant so much to him, to them, to California, 
and to the Union. Mr. Stanford was chosen president ; 
Mr. Huntington, vice president ; Mark Hopkins, treasurer ; 
James Bailey, secretary; and T. J. Judah, chief engineer. 

At this time neither Mr. Stanford nor his associates had 
great wealth, but they had faith, energy, and force of charac- 
ter. They sought and obtained aid from Congress. They 
received nearly nine millions of acres of land in alternate 
sections along the line of their road, and from $16,000 to 
;^48,000 a mile for the road built, the amount paid varying 
with the difficulty of construction. The enterprise was a 



126 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

good one for the government, as it opened up vast tracts for 
settlement and greatly lessened the cost of transportation 
of government supplies ; and it doubtless so bound together 
the East and the West as to prevent a secession of the Pacific 
states. The road was begun in 1 863 and completed in 1 869. 
At times failure seemed certain. The work was a great 
strain on those who had it in charge, and only Mr. Stanford 
never lost faith. His iron will never yielded. 

With the completion of this road Mr. Stanford turned 
his attention elsewhere, becoming interested in other roads, 
in a line of steamships from San Francisco to China, street 
railways, woolen mills, and the manufacture of sugar. He 
purchased large tracts of land, in all nearly 100,000 acres. 
He bought over 8000 acres at Palo Alto, where he made 
his summer home. Here he sought to plant every variety 
of tree that would grow in California. Thousands were set 
out each year. He was fond of animals and especially so 
of horses, his establishment at Palo Alto for raising horses 
being the largest in the world. He spent $40,000 on 
experiments in instantaneous photography of horses, and 
published a book entitled "The Horse in Motion." 

In 1885 Mr. Stanford was elected to the United States 
Senate and was reelected at the close of his term. His 
most notable act was the introduction and advocacy of the 
Land-Loan Bill, which provided that the government should 
lend money to farmers, to half the value of their farms, on 
mortgages bearing two per cent interest. Whatever may 
be thought of the wisdom of the proposed act it certainly 
was evidence of a philanthropic spirit. 

The Stanfords were greatly beloved in Washington for 
their cordiality and generosity. Every asylum and charity 



LELAND STANFORD 127 

hospital in Washington was remembered by them every 
Christmas, and they were constantly giving to all chari- 
table and philanthropic objects. They gave an annual din- 
ner to the Senate pages, and both then and at Christmas 
gave them all appropriate gifts. Each winter they gave a 
luncheon to the telegraph and messenger boys, also gifts 
of money, gloves, etc. 

Mr. Stanford had one son, named for him, who died at 
Rome in his sixteenth year. From this loss Mr. Stanford 




Leland Stanford University 

never recovered. The young man was tall, handsome, fond 
of study, ambitious to be of use in the world, and of great 
promise. Mr. Stanford established the university at Palo 
Alto in his son's memory and named it for him. 

Many friends had urged the Stanfords to give their 
money for some other purpose than that of education, say- 
ing that too much education would unfit people for labor ; 
but Mr. Stanford thought differently, and at the opening 
of the university, speaking for himself and his wife, because 
she had been his active co-worker, said : 

We do not believe there can be any superfluous education. As a 
man cannot have too much heaUh and intelHgence, so he cannot be 



I2J 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



too highly educated. Whether in the discharge of responsible or 
humble duties, he will ever find the knowledge he has acquired 
through education not only of practical assistance to him but a 
factor in his personal happiness and a joy forever. 

Mr. Stanford's kindly spirit was shown in the Senate on 
the occasion of the nomination of Mr. Lamar for associate 








University Church, Leland Stanford University 

justice of the Supreme Court. The nomination was 
opposed by many because Mr. Lamar had taken an active 
part against the United States during the Civil War. Mr. 
Stanford said : 

No man sympathized more sincerely than myself with the cause of 
the Union, or deprecated more the cause of the South. I would have 
given fortune and life to have defeated that cause. But the war has 
terminated, and what this country needs now is absolute and profound 
peace. Lamar was a representative Southern man and adhered to 



LELAND STANFORD I 29 

the convictions of his boyhood and manhood. There can never be 
pacification in this country until these war memories are obliterated 
by the action of the executive and of Congress. 

Mr. Stanford was by turns farmer boy, lawyer, railroad 
builder, governor, and United States senator, but it is 
because of his generous gifts that he is best known and 
will be longest and most kindly remembered. And the 
greatest gift of all, one that will never cease to be a power 
for good, is the university founded in remembrance of his 
son, an institution where no tuition is charged, where all 
who will and who are properly fitted may attend. His 
magnificent gifts to this school, nobly supplemented by 
those of his wife, make it the most richly endowed uni- 
versity in America. Who can estimate the value of a life 
that culminates in such a grand work ? 




Charles Pratt 



130 



CHARLES PRATT 

1830-1891 

Charles Pratt was born at Watertown, Massachusetts, 
October 2, 1830. His father, Asa Pratt, had a family of ten 
children, and it was necessary that each child should learn 
to help himself as soon as possible. Charles left home to 
work for a near-by farmer when he was only ten years old. 
Here he worked for three years, going to school for three 
months each winter. Although he was not strong he was 
very ambitious, and when only thirteen years of age he went 
to Boston and worked in a grocery. After spending a year 
here he went to Newton and learned the trade of a machin- 
ist. All this time he was as economical as possible, hoping 
to save enough to enable him to get a better education. 
At length he was able to pay for a year's tuition at Wil- 
braham Academy, where he lived for a dollar a week. 

At the close of his year at school he went to Boston as 
clerk in a paint and oil store. He had learned some things 
thoroughly, among others to rely upon himself, to utilize 
all his time, and to be exceedingly economical. All his 
life long he could not bear to see anything wasted, time 
least of all. 

His year at school had intensified, instead of satisfying, 
his thirst for knowledge, and in Boston he could have access 
to the Public Library, where he spent most of his spare time. 

131 



132 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

At twenty-one years of age he went to New York and 
became a clerk for Schanck and Downing, dealers in oil, 
paint, and glass. Here, as always, he worked hard. It 
was his theory of life that work should be both a duty and 
a pleasure, and he fully realized his theory. Years after- 
wards, when he was very wealthy, he said : 

I am convinced that the great problem we are trying to solve is 
very much wrapped up in the thought of educating people to find 
happiness in a busy, active life, and that the occupation of the hour 
is of more importance than the wages received. 

After working three years for Schanck and Downing, he 
and two others bought out the business and established the 
firm of Raynolds, Devoe, and Pratt, which continued for 
thirteen years, after which the firm was divided and the oil 
business carried on by Charles Pratt & Co. 

When the oil fields of Pennsylvania began to be developed 
Mr. Pratt was one of the first to see the possibilities of the 
petroleum trade. He experimented in refining the oil and 
succeeded in producing what he called "Pratt's Astral Oil," 
probably the best on the market. He took great pride 
in it and was greatly pleased when he was told that the 
Russian convent on Mount Tabor was lighted with Pratt's 
Astral Oil. He said that he meant to see that the stamp 
" Pratt " should be as good as the stamp of the mint. For 
many years he was one of the officers of the Standard Oil 
Company and a large shareholder in it. Little could the 
delicate ten-year-old hired boy on a Massachusetts farm 
have dreamed that he would one day be worth his millions, 
the legitimate fruit of his own industry, enterprise, and 
forethought. 



CHARLES PRATT 



133 



He lived simply, took no pleasure in display, and had no 
desire for a fine mansion. His home was to him the best 
place on earth. His business, his home, his church, and 
his philanthropy occupied his whole life. He was a man 
of few words and of great self-control. He never forgot 
that he had been a poor boy, and always sympathized with 
those who were struggling with adverse circumstances. He 
had no faith in any one who did not try to improve himself. 
It is said that a young man once came to him for advice 
as to whether or not he should go west. He questioned 
the young man as to how he used his time, what he did 
before and after business hours, and finding that he was 
doing nothing in the way of self-education, said to him, 
"No; don't go west. They don't want you." 

Some of Charles Pratt's Sayings 

There is no inherent reason why man should consider his daily 
labor, of whatever nature, as necessarily disagreeable and burdensome. 
The right view is one which makes work a delight, a source of real 
satisfaction and even pleasure. 

The greatest humbug in the world is the idea that the mere pos- 
session of money can make any man happy. I never got any 
satisfaction out of mine until I began to do good with it. 

The giving which counts is the giving of one's self. 

A knowledge of household employments is thoroughly consistent 
with the grace and dignity and true womanliness of every American 
girl. 

Home is the center from which the life of the nation emanates ; 
and the highest product of modern civilization is a contented, happy 
home. 



134 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

There is nothing under God's heaven so important to the individ- 
ual as to acquire the power to earn his own living ; to be able to 
stand alone if necessary ; to be dependent upon no one ; to be 
indispensable to some one. 

Whatever I have done, whatever I hope to do, I have done 
trusting in the Power above. 

Pratt Institute 

For years Mr. Pratt had been thinking about indus- 
trial education. He knew that the great majority of men 
and women must struggle for a livelihood, and he believed 
that every one, rich or poor, should know how to be self- 
supporting. He therefore desired to found an institution 
that would aid people in their efforts to fit themselves to 
do their work in the best way. He sought all possible 
means of information as to the proper course to pursue. 
He traveled largely in this country, corresponded with the 
heads of the various technical and industrial schools, and 
visited England, France, Austria, Switzerland, and Ger- 
many to see what the Old World was doing to educate 
people to be self-helpful. 

On his return from Europe he resolved to build an insti- 
tute where any one who wished to engage in " mechanical, 
commercial, or artistic pursuits should receive theoretical 
and practical knowledge." In 1885 he began the erection 
of a building in Brooklyn. He provided a machine shop, 
a woodworking shop, a metal-working shop, forge and 
foundry rooms. A building for bricklaying, stone carving, 
plumbing, and the like was added. Later a high-school 
building was erected. There is also an art department 
with morning, afternoon, and evening classes. There are 



CHARLES PRATT 



135 



courses in drawing, painting, clay modeling, architectural 
and mechanical drawing, designing, wood carving, art needle- 
work, and domestic science. There are day and evening 
classes in phonography, typewriting, bookkeeping, commer- 
cial law, German, Spanish, and vocal music. There is a 




Pratt Institute 

kindergarten department with a training class for teachers 
and mothers. As many as twenty-eight hundred pupils 
have been enrolled in the domestic science department in 
a single year, and more than four thousand students in all 
are receiving instruction. 

Mr. Pratt had found the Boston Public Library so helpful 
to him that when he came to New York he became greatly 



136 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

interested in the Mercantile Library of that city. He felt 
so strongly regarding the helpful influence of good books 
that he established a library in connection with his Institute 
and later opened a school for librarians. 

During his lifetime Mr. Pratt gave $3,700,000 to the 
Institute, but this was far from being his only good work. 
At Greenpoint he built a large apartment house, called the 
"Astral," which is rented at low rates to workingmen and 
the proceeds given towards the support of the Institute. 
In connection with the Astral is a public library, which 
at first was free to the occupants of the building only, 
but afterwards was made free to all residents of Green- 
point. Over the fireplace of the reading room of the 
Astral these words are cut in stone : " Waste neither time 
nor money." 

In closing his last address at the Institute, he said : 

To my. sons and co-trustees who will have this work to carry on 
when I am gone I wish to say a word. The world will overestimate 
your ability, and will underestimate the value of your work ; will be 
exacting of every promise made or implied ; will be critical of your 
failings ; will often misjudge your motives ; and will hold you to a 
strict account for all your doings. Many pupils will make demands, 
and be forgetful of your service to them. Ingratitude will often be 
your reward. When the day is dark and full of discouragement and 
difficulty, you will need to look on the other side of the picture, which 
you will find full of hope and gladness. 

Dr. Cuyler said of Mr. Pratt that from him " innumer- 
able little rills of benevolence trickled into the homes of 
the needy and the hearts of the straitened and suffering." 
He gave to a great number of worthy causes, — to charity, 
to education, to needy and struggling churches. He died 



CHARLES PRAIT 1 37 

while at work in his New York office, on the 4th of May, 
1 89 1. Almost the last words Mr. Pratt wrote were these 
characteristic ones, " I feel that life is so short that I am 
not satisfied unless I do each day the best I can." His 
last act was to sign a check for the benefit of the Brooklyn 
Bureau of Charities. 

A beautiful memorial chapel has been erected by his 
family on his estate at Glen Cove, Long Island, but com- 
paratively few will ever see it or know of it. His real 
monument is Pratt Institute, which will continue to be of 
immeasurable benefit to the citizens of the United States. 




Cornelius Vanderbilt 



n^ 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT 

1794-1S77 

Cornelius Vanderbilt was one of the most remarkable 
men of business that this country has produced. His was 
a constructive work, and the skill required to construct is 
always greater than that required to destroy. It is said 
that Mr. Vanderbilt originated little, but that he had a 
genius for improving existing things and for foreseeing 
what the drift of business would be. The story of his life 
is interesting to all who care for the history of the indus- 
trial development of our country. 

Mr. Vanderbilt was born near Stapleton, Staten Island, 
New York, May 27, 1794. He was descended from a Dutch 
immigrant, Jan Aertsen Van der Bilt, who came from Hol- 
land about 1650 and settled upon a farm near Brooklyn, 
New York. Jan's grandson, the great-grandfather of Cor- 
nelius, went over to Staten Island in 171 5 and became 
the owner of a farm near New Dorp. The Vanderbilts 
continued to live on Staten Island till the time of Cornelius. 
The father of Cornelius was a farmer in moderate circum- 
stances, who could have given his son a fair education, but 
the lad's interest lay in other ways. He learned to read 
and write, and that was about all, save that he had natu- 
rally a genius for arithmetic. 

The early life of Cornelius was spent on the farm or 
in marketing its produce, the latter work leading him to 

139 



I40 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

become very familiar with the water traffic about New 
York City. While still a mere boy he carried the produce 
of his father's farm to market in a boat which they owned ; 
he also carried freight for others, and when opportunity 
offered carried passengers also. The produce was usually 
sold in advance, but often Cornelius was given discretion 
in the matter of sales, and early showed the business 
shrewdness so characteristic of him later in life. He 
became a close student of the market, and made little 
ventures of his own with such success that at the age of 
sixteen he became the owner of a better boat than his 
father's. By the time he was eighteen years old he owned 
two boats and was captain of a third. When he was nine- 
teen he married his cousin, Sophia Johnson, who made a 
prudent, thrifty wife and who contributed largely towards 
the accumulation of his fortune. At the age of twenty- 
three he was worth $9000, and was captain of a steam- 
boat at a salary of $1000 a year. This boat made trips 
between New York and Brunswick, New Jersey, where 
his wife kept a small hotel. 

At a very early period in his career Mr. Vanderbilt 
began to make a careful study of the means of trans- 
portation between New York and the neighboring ports. 
He established lines from New York to several places on 
the Hudson River and Long Island Sound, for the pur- 
pose of carrying freight and passengers. He had boats 
built according to plans that were largely his own. These 
boats were the very best of their class in regard to speed, 
comfort, and capacity. 

When he was only thirty-three he leased the ferry between 
New York and Elizabeth, New Jersey, and built new and 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT 



141 



better boats for the service. He met with such success 
that two years later he entered into a successful competition 
for the transport service of the Hudson. His training from 
his early boyhood had fitted him for this task. He knew 
all the details of the work, was thoroughly familiar with 
the water ways about New York, knew where to find the 
best possible equipment, had a wide acquaintance with all 
classes of water men, and was therefore able to obtain the 
very best help for all positions. He secured the most satis- 
factory results from the work of his men because he always 
recognized and rewarded faithfulness and efficiency, and 
was utterly remorseless in regard to men who did not render 
effective service. 

When he was forty-five years of age he was thought to 
be worth $500,000. He had so extensive a line of vessels 
that he was universally known as "Commodore." At this 
time he disposed of his Hudson River interests and devoted 
himself to extending and improving his traffic on Long 
Island Sound. 

Upon the discovery of gold in California in 1849 there 
was widespread excitement, and thousands were anxious to 
reach California as soon as possible. Transportation was 
hard to secure. Vanderbilt immediately established a line 
of steamers on the Nicaragua route to San Francisco and 
made very large profits. Later he established a line between 
New York and Havre. 

In 1853 he sold out his Nicaragua line upon what he 
considered very advantageous terms. He determined to 
take a vacation, having worked for more than forty years 
without rest and under circumstances that were very exact- 
ing. He built a steam yacht upon plans that were largely 



142 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

his own, surpassing in size and equipment any then in exist- 
ence. This vessel he called the North Star, and in it he 
took his family and a party of friends for a long pleasure 
trip to the Old World. 

On his return to America he found that those to whom 
he had sold the Nicaragua line were trying to evade mak- 
ing the payments as agreed upon. Most men would have 
sought redress in the courts, but he at once established 
a competing line and with his great resources and better 
understanding of the business forced them into bankruptcy. 
This gave him the complete control of a business so valu- 
able that in the next eleven years his profits amounted to 
$1 1,000,000. This made him one of the wealthiest men in 
America, and it was the result of legitimate business enter- 
prise on the part of one who began life with good health, 
strength, tireless energy, and a genius for business, but 
without money, special training, or wealthy and influential 
friends. He had made his way unaided, in the face of 
determined and powerful opposition. 

All great men make mistakes and Vanderbilt was no 
exception to the rule. At the outbreak of the Crimean 
War he entered into competition with England for the 
carrying trade between Europe and the United States, 
but owing to conditions which it is not necessary to 
discuss here, the enterprise failed. 

Mr. Vanderbilt was not slow to see that the railroads 
were destined to interfere seriously with the water traffic 
on the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. As early 
as 1844 he began very quietly to buy shares in the New 
York and New Haven Railroad. It was not until after the 
close of the Crimean War in 1856 that it was observed 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT 



143 



that he was drawing out of the Sound traffic. In all these 
years he had been quietly buying stock in the New York 
and Harlem Railroad. The stock in both the roads men- 
tioned was bought at a very low figure. 

Mr. Vanderbilt had still too much invested in steamships 
to put his energies into railroads, but the outbreak of the 
Civil War created such a demand for steamships that he 
was enabled to dispose of all the vessels he cared to part 
with, and in 1863, when he was sixty-nine years old, he 
entered upon a new career, one in which he was to achieve 
his greatest success, make the most radical changes, and 
accumulate an immense fortune. He became the greatest 
and most successful railroad manager the world had known. 
He differed from all railroad managers of that time in that 
he improved the roads he bought, and brought them to the 
highest degree of efficiency, while others made money by 
"wrecking" roads. His chief, business maxim was "Do 
your business well, and don't tell anybody what you are 
going to do till you have done it." 

The following incident illustrates Mr. Vanderbilt's deci- 
sion and energy. With the first news of the appearance 
of the Merrimac Mr. Vanderbilt immediately gave to the 
government his steamer Vanderbilt, which cost nearly 
a million dollars, and which he believed to be both the 
strongest and swiftest ship afloat. He was sure that it 
could run down the Merrimac, though both vessels might 
be sunk by the collision. The success of the Monitor 
made the trial unnecessary, and the Vanderbilt was put 
to other service in which it was of great value to the gov- 
ernment. For this gift Congress voted Mr. Vanderbilt a 
gold medal. 



144 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

The Harlem Railroad had been so mismanaged that in 
1863 its stock was selling at $10 a share. Mr. Vanderbilt 
bought a controlling interest in the road, and at the same 
time bought shares in the Hudson River road at $75 a 
share. This was the beginning of a battle royal between 
Vanderbilt and his business rivals. He obtained a charter 
for a system of street railways in New York to connect 
with his road, which sent its stock up to par ; but prominent 
Wall Street operators and politicians entered into a combi- 
nation against him, the politicians undertaking to secure 
the repeal of his charter, while the operators were to force 
down the price of the stock. This they succeeded in doing, 
the stock going lower and lower, but Vanderbilt kept buying 
it till he had the whole stock of the road, and the operators 
who had sold short had to settle with him on his own terms. 

By this time he had secured a controlling interest in the 
Hudson River road, and he applied to the legislature for an 
act providing for a union of the Hudson River and Harlem 
roads under one management. Here he met the same kind 
of opposition as before from those who had not yet learned 
what kind of man they had to deal with. The stock went 
down, down below what it sold for before Mr. Vanderbilt 
took hold of it, and again he bought all that was offered. 
The contest went on until it was found that the men opposed 
to him had contracted to sell twenty-seven thousand more 
shares than had ever been issued. In order to avert a gen- 
eral panic the " commodore " had to settle with the " shorts," 
but he did it at a price that brought him immense profits. 
The two roads were made one, with Mr. Vanderbilt as presi- 
dent of the new company. He surprised old railroad men 
with the minuteness of his knowledge of railway construction. 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT 145 

Great improvements were made in every department. He 
insisted that only the very best appHances should be used, 
and that the employees should be well disciplined, faithful, 
and efficient. This was a revolution in railroad management. 

Soon Mr. Vanderbilt began to buy stock in the Central 
road. Its managers decided to make war upon him and 
arranged to send as much of their freight and as many 
of their passengers as possible from Albany to New York 
by water. This did not prove to be a wise movement, for 
when the ice closed the river traffic Mr. Vanderbilt changed 
the terminus of his road from Albany to the other side 
of the river and refused to receive freight from the Central. 
The result was that the stock of the Central fell rapidly, 
the holders were anxious to sell, and Mr. Vanderbilt was 
soon able to unite the Central with his other roads. 

After this there was a long contest with the Erie, in 
which Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, James Fiske, and others 
were his opponents. The result of the contest was that 
the Vanderbilt roads were left without an important rival 
for the traffic between Buffalo and New York. Later con- 
trol of the Lake Shore, Canada Southern, and Michigan 
Central was obtained, and the magnificently equipped and 
well managed Vanderbilt system was complete. 

Business is a commercial warfare and, like other forms 
of war, is not always conducted in the most humane manner. 
While individuals may have suffered through Mr. Vander- 
bilt's enterprises, the world at large is the better for his 
having lived. He contributed much to the permanent pros- 
perity of our country and set on foot enterprises which con- 
tinue to be of great value. 




Eli Whitney 



146 



ELI WHITNEY 

1765-1825 

Eli Whitney will always be known to the general public 
as the inventor of the cotton gin, although his other inven- 
tions are also worthy of mention. 

He was born in Westboro, Massachusetts, December 8, 
1765. His father was an influential farmer, though not a 
rich one. Being a man of more than ordinary ingenuity, he 
had a shop in which he repaired agricultural machinery 
and sometimes, when he had spare time, made chairs and 
wheels. In this shop Eli early learned to handle tools. 
He made toy carts, sleds, kites, traps, and such other toys 
and implements as boys are interested in. From early boy- 
hood he was known as a mechanical genius. When only 
twelve years old he made a very good violin. This attracted 
so much attention that people came miles to see it. From 
that time he did a very profitable business in repairing violins 
and other musical instruments. 

He had long been very eager to examine his father's 
watch, and observing one Sunday morning that his father 
was going to leave the watch at home, he feigned sickness 
that he might have a chance to inspect it. He took it apart 
and put it together again so skillfully that his father had no 
suspicion that it had been touched. At that time Eli was 
only about twelve years old. When he was thirteen his 

147 



148 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

father married a second time. Eli's stepmother had a hand- 
some set of table knives of which she was very proud and 
which she was very fond of exhibiting. On one occasion 
Eli said : " I could make as good ones if I had the tools, 
and I could make the tools if I had the common tools to 
begin with." This remark caused much laughter at Eli's 
expense, but it happened that one of the knives was broken 
a little later and Eli really did make one to replace it that 
was exactly like the others, save the stamp on the blade. 

During the Revolutionary War nails were very scarce, 
and when he was sixteen years old Eli began to manufacture 
them. He carried on the work very profitably till the close 
of the war, after which they were imported at a price which 
made his labor unprofitable. Young Whitney also began 
the manufacture of hat pins, and succeeded so well that he 
soon had a practical monopoly of the business. 

At nineteen years of age he determined to obtain a 
liberal education. He had long desired this and his father 
had sympathized with him, though he had been unable to 
give the lad an education beyond that offered in the schools 
of his own town. By the exercise of his mechanical skill 
and by teaching school Eli earned enough to enable him 
to prepare for Yale College, which he entered when he was 
twenty-four years old. Many of his friends tried to dissuade 
him, saying, "It is a great pity to spoil such ingenuity by 
going to college." 

He was a hard-working student and completed his course 
in three years, standing well in his classes and excelling in 
mathematics and mechanics. He showed his mechanical 
skill when in college by repairing philosophical apparatus 
that no one else in the place could put in order. 



ELI WHITNEY 149 

At the close of his college course he went South to teach. 
On the steamer with him was the widow of General Greene, 
who was destined to have a great influence on his career. 
When he reached Savannah he found that the position 
of tutor, upon which he was counting, had been filled by 
another. Being without money, occupation, or friends, he 
was at a loss what to do. He made his situation known to 
Mrs. Greene, who invited him to make her house his home 
and advised him to study law. He accepted the home, but, 
fortunately for him and for the world, circumstances led 
him to abandon the study of law. 

While he was making his home with Mrs. Greene he 
showed many times and in many ways his remarkable 
mechanical ingenuity. One day a number of gentlemen 
were discussing at her house the condition of agriculture 
in the South, and were expressing their regret that cotton 
raising was so unprofitable owing to the labor involved in 
separating the cotton from the seed. " It is a day's labor 
to separate a single pound of cotton from the seeds," said 
one. " What a pity that there is no mechanical device for 
doing the work ! " 

At this Mrs. Greene said, "Gentlemen, apply to my young 
friend here, Mr. Whitney. He can make anything." 

It happened that Mr. Whitney had never seen any cotton 
as it comes from the plant, but when some was brought to 
him he undertook the task of making a suitable machine. 
He worked under great difficulties, as he had to make his 
own tools. There was no wire to be had in Savannah, and 
he was compelled to draw wire for his own use. After 
several months' work his machine was completed. With 
the exception of Mrs. Greene and a neighbor named Miller, 



I50 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



no one knew of his work. Mr. Miller, who afterwards mar- 
ried Mrs. Greene, was a native of Connecticut and, like 
Whitney, a graduate of Yale. He was a lawyer by profes- 
sion and had a decided taste for mechanics. 

Upon the completion of the cotton gin several prominent 
gentlemen from various parts of the state were invited to 




Early Cotton Gin 



be present at a test of its work. The experiment was a 
complete success. The machine would do the work of 
hundreds of men, and through its use cotton raising became 
immensely profitable. The value of this invention, espe- 
cially to the South, can hardly be estimated. No other 
invention, unless it be the reaper, has added so much to 
the wealth of the country. 



ELI WHITNEY 



151 



The cotton gin was invented in 1793. In 1791 the United 
States had exported less than 20,000 pounds of cotton. In 
1828 the crop was 270,000,000 pounds. In i860 it had 
increased to 4,669,770 bales ; in 1899 to 1 1,335,383 bales, 
a bale weighing a little less than 500 pounds. 

In 181 5 the price of the cheapest kind of cotton cloth 
was thirty cents a yard. In 1830 it was ten cents ; in 1840, 
eight cents ; and it has sold as low as three cents a yard. 

Mr. Whitney entered into partnership with Mrs. Greene 
and Mr. Miller to manufacture and sell the cotton gin, 
Mrs. Greene and Mr. Miller furnishing the capital. They 
established a factory in Connecticut, but before the prepa- 
rations for manufacture were completed his workshop was 
broken into and his models stolen. Before his machines 
were on the market several others, inferior to his, but made 
from his stolen models, were on sale. He brought suits to 
protect his interests, but the power of money, the injustice 
of courts, and the devices of legal talent were so effective 
that more than sixty suits were brought in Georgia before 
a single decision could be obtained on the merits of his claim. 
He finally established his rights so far as the validity of 
his patent was concerned, but found it practically impossible 
to convict any one for the violation of it, as in the face of 
convincing evidence no jury would find a verdict for him. 
Early in the controversy the factory in Connecticut was 
burned and Whitney not only lost all that he had but 
found himself $4000 in debt besides. 

Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina bought 
of Mr. Whitney the right to use the cotton gin in their 
respective states. North Carolina lived up to her agree- 
ment. South Carolina, after paying part of the sum due, 



152 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

refused to pay more and brought suit to recover the amount 
that had been paid, although this action was rescinded later. 
Tennessee annulled her contract. So shamefully was Whit- 
ney treated, and to such legal expense was he put, that it 
is said that when he applied for the renewal of his patent 
in 1 8 1 2 he had not received as much from his invention as 
was saved in one hour by the use of his machines then in 
operation. 

It is almost inconceivable, considering the value of the 
invention, the trifling sum that Whitney made from it, and 
the trouble and expense that he was subjected to in main- 
taining his claim, that a renewal of the patent would be 
refused, yet such was the case. 

The following extract from a letter from Whitney to 
Robert Fulton is of interest because it shows the feeling 
of the people of the South toward him and his invention. 

At one time but few men in Georgia dared to come into court and 
testify to the most simple facts within their knowledge relative to the 
use of the machine. In one instance I had great difficulty in proving 
that the machine had been used in Georgia, although at the same 
moment there were three separate sets of this machinery in motion 
within fifty yards of the building in which the court sat, and all so 
near that the rattling of the wheels was distinctly heard on the steps 
of the courthouse. 

Mr. Whitney added hundreds of millions of dollars to the 
wealth of the country. The debts of the South were paid 
off by means of the cotton gin and its lands were trebled 
in value. For this he was rewarded by thirty years of 
ingratitude and injustice. 

While this hurt Mr. Whitney it did not embitter him. 
As early as 1798 he felt that he had little hope of reaping 
any reward from his invention of the cotton gin, and he 



ELI WHITNEY 



153 



began the manufacture of firearms, establishing his factory 
at East Rock, near New Haven, a place now known as 
Whitneyville. He received from time to time several con- 
tracts from the United States for the manufacture of mus- 
kets. He introduced many ingenious inventions in the 
manufacture of his guns, making them superior to any 
before in use. He was the first to divide labor so as to 
have one man make a single thing and so become very 
accurate in his work. His skill in this particular and his 
mechanical inventions enabled him to accumulate a fortune. 
President Day of Yale College, in a eulogy delivered at 
the death of Whitney, said : 

The higher qualities of his mind, instead of unfitting him for ordi- 
nary duties, were firmly tempered with taste and judgment in the 
business of life. His manners were formed by an extensive inter- 
course with the best society. He had an energy of character that 
carried him through difficulties too formidable for ordinary minds. 
With these advantages he entered on the career of life ; his efforts 
were crowned with success. He had gained the respect of all classes 
of the community ; his opinions were regarded with peculiar deference 
by the man of science as well as the practical artist. His large and 
liberal views, his knowledge of the world, the wide range of his obser- 
vations, his public spirit, and his acts of beneficence had given him 
a commanding influence in society. 

There is, it must be said, a debit and a credit side to every 
account, and even the invention of the cotton gin was not 
an immediate and unmixed good. Previous to its invention 
slavery, as an institution, was dying out in the South because 
it was unprofitable. The enormous increase in cotton cul- 
ture, however, made slavery very profitable ; so that it is 
even possible to consider the cotton gin as one of the causes 
that led to the great Civil War. 




Henry Clay 



154 



HENRY CLAY 

1777-1852 

Henry Clay was a man concerning whom great differ- 
ence of opinion prevailed. Andrew Jackson, without doubt, 
thought him the incarnation of all that was evil in public 
life ; his intimate friends believed him to be the imper- 
sonation of nearly all the virtues and talents committed 
to mankind. Between these two extremes were many 
differing opinions. 

The study of such a life must be of interest to those 
who care for public affairs. Clay's long political career, 
covering the most exciting period of American history and 
dealing with the most intricate problems, notably that of 
slavery, could have no other effect than to make for him 
warm friends and bitter enemies. It was inevitable that any 
man under such circumstances would not always be right, 
would not always act wisely, would not always be consistent. 

That Clay was patriotic and loved his country intensely 
cannot be doubted ; that his very love for the Union may 
sometimes have led to his adoption of questionable com- 
promises, to unwise change in views, or at least to unwise 
action, is perhaps true. It is not possible in this brief sketch 
to present a complete biography, for that would necessitate 
giving a history of the United States for nearly half a cen- 
tury. During his long political life there was no limit to 

155 



156 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

the abuse heaped upon Clay by his enemies, or to the admi- 
ration and laudation of his friends, who were affectionate, 
devoted, and enthusiastic to a degree never surpassed. At 
his defeat for the office of President strong men wept as 
over the loss of a near and dear friend. 

Henry Clay was born April 12, 1777, in Hanover County, 
Virginia. His father, John Clay, was a Baptist minister, 
a man of excellent character and great dignity. He had a 
remarkable voice and a fine delivery, which his son also 
possessed. He preached to a poor congregation, receiving 
a meager salary, and at his death, which occurred when 
Henry was only four years old, his wife was left with the 
care of seven children and practically without means. She 
is said to have been a woman of great executive ability and 
many admirable qualities. 

Under the circumstances Clay had little opportunity of 
attending school ; two or three years in a log schoolhouse, 
presided over by a man of questionable reputation, could 
not have contributed much to his future greatness. When 
not in school he was following the plow barefooted, or riding 
a pony carrying corn or wheat to Daricott's mill on the 
Pamunkey River. On his way to the mill he had to pass 
through a swampy region known as the "Slashes," and 
because of this he was known afterwards as " The Mill 
Boy of the Slashes." 

Clay was devoted to his mother, but he was separated 
from her early in life by her marriage to Henry Watkins, 
with whom she went to Kentucky. Mr. Watkins thought 
very much of the boy and secured him a place as assistant 
to Peter Tinsley, clerk of the High Court of Chancery. 
This was when Clay was about fourteen years old. For 



HENRY CLAY 1 57 

the four years preceding this he had been a clerk in the 
retail store of Richard Denby, in Richmond. 

In his new position Clay felt his lack of knowledge more 
than ever before, and put forth increased efforts to acquire 
an education. While with Mr. Tinsley he was thrown in 
contact with Chancellor Wythe, who became greatly inter- 
ested in him and directed his studies. The chancellor 
thought Clay an uncommon young man and prophesied a 
brilliant future for him. After some years he advised Clay 
to read law, which he did, applying himself with such energy 
and enthusiasm that he was admitted to practice within 
a year and when he was only twenty years old. At this 
time Clay was a tall, thin, awkward, beardless youth, but 
remarkably bright and enterprising. His friends wished 
him to practice law in Richmond, but for some reason, 
possibly to be near his mother, he soon went to Kentucky. 
He settled at Lexington, near which place he spent most 
of his life. 

He did not go to Kentucky with any extravagant expecta- 
tions. When an old man he said, " I remember how com- 
fortable I thought I should be if I could make a hundred 
pounds a year, and with what delight I received my first 
fifteen-shilling fee." For the purpose of improving in speak- 
ing he joined a debating society soon after going to Lex- 
ington, but owing to his modesty he took no part in the 
debates till one evening the president of the society called 
upon him to speak. He arose, greatly embarrassed, and said 
" Gentlemen of the jury," but noticing his mistake, and also 
that the audience sympathized with him, he rallied and made 
a brilliant speech. He was enthusiastically applauded and 
warmly congratulated. 



158 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

He immediately began a lucrative practice. Even at that 
early age he was "one of the most fluent and eloquent 
speakers that ever addressed a jury." He early came in 
contact with such able lawyers as John Breckenridge, Felix 
Grundy, George Nicolas, and William Murray, and on the 
whole he was a greater power in the court room than any 
one of them, though he never ranked with the great lawyers 
of the country. 

Clay was imaginative, eloquent, skillful in debate, ingenious 
in his grouping and statement of facts, and plausible in his 
reasoning. He was somewhat superficial ; partly because 
of his lack of education, partly because he was too fond 
of society to give sufficient study to his cases, and partly 
because he was not willing in all cases to follow his reason- 
ing to its logical conclusion. There is some force in the 
criticism once made of him, that he " was a declaimer rather 
than a reasoner," but it must be remembered that he was a 
very able man notwithstanding these faults, which he over- 
came in a measure in his later life. 

From the first Clay was greatly interested in politics. 
When he had been in Kentucky but a short time a conven- 
tion was called to draft a new constitution. Clay earnestly 
urged that provision be made for the gradual emancipation 
of slaves. In this he had almost no following, but he pre- 
sented his views with great force. He said that he had 
always felt that slavery was wrong and a great curse to 
all concerned with it. For taking this position he was 
denounced as "a Southern man with Northern principles." 
This, however, did not seem to lessen his popularity. In 
fact there is in most cases admiration for a man who will 
stand by his convictions even when he knows he is hopelessly 



HENRY CLAY 



159 



in the minority. This Clay usually did regardless of the 
consequences to himself. If there seemed to be some 
exceptions to this when he was seeking the Presidency, he 
suffered enough for it, and it was contrary to the general 
tenor of his life. Later, on a famous occasion, he said, " I 
had rather be right than President." 

During Clay's time dueling was universally upheld in 
the South, and under certain conditions a man had to fight 
or be socially ostracized. On two occasions Clay accepted 
a challenge, but he left no one in doubt as to his own con- 
victions on the subject. He wrote : 

I owe it to the community to say that whatever I may have done, 
or by inevitable circumstances might be forced to do, no man in it 
holds in deeper abhorrence than I do the pernicious practice of dueling. 

Clay was elected a member of the Kentucky legislature 
when only twenty-six years of age. Three years later he 
was chosen to serve out the unexpired term of John Adair 
in the United States Senate, being the youngest man ever 
chosen to that office. In fact when he was sworn in he 
lacked a little more than three months of reaching the con- 
stitutional age, but the question of age qualification seems 
not to have been thought of in his case. 

Clay so prospered in his profession that when he had 
been at Lexington only two years he felt justified in marry- 
ing and buying an estate of six hundred acres near Lex- 
ington, which he called Ashland. As Clay increased in 
wealth he grew in popularity also, till he was by far the 
most popular man in the state. He never became very 
wealthy, because his hospitalities were always dispropor- 
tioned to his means. 



i6o 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



After serving out the unexpired term of Adair in the 
Senate he was again elected to the Kentucky legislature 
and chosen Speaker, which gave him the necessary training 
for the position which was to come to him in the future, 




Ashland, the Home of Henry Clay 

and in which he was to make his greatest reputation, — 
the Speakership of the House of Representatives. In the 
winter of 1809-18 lO he was again sent to the United 
States Senate to serve out the unexpired term (two years) 
of Buckner Thurston. He made speeches in favor of encour- 
aging American manufacturing industries, and was recog- 
nized as a rising: man. 



HENRY CLAY l6l 

Upon the expiration of his term in the Senate he was 
chosen a member of the House of Representatives and 
elected Speaker. This was really the beginning of his great 
career, his other service having merely prepared him for it. 
At that time we were on the eve of a war with Great 
Britain. Clay deemed war inevitable, and he more than 
any other man was responsible for it. It is doubtful if war 
would have broken out if he had used his influence to pre- 
vent it. As it was, the majority in its favor was small both 
in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. Later 
Clay resigned the Speakership to act as one of the commis- 
sioners to arrange a treaty of peace between Great Britain 
and the United States. The result of this treaty was to 
leave all matters as they were before the war, not one of 
our grievances having been redressed. 

Upon the election of Monroe, Clay hoped to be made 
Secretary of State, but Webster was given that place, while 
Clay was offered the War Department and the Russian 
mission, both of which he declined. He was again elected 
to the House of Representatives and chosen Speaker by an 
almost unanimous vote. When first elected Speaker, at the 
age of thirty-seven, he was probably the most popular man 
in the country, and almost to the day of his death he was 
the most influential man in his party. 

Clay was no doubt wise in declining the positions offered 
him by Monroe and remaining in the House of Representa- 
tives. The place that both nature and training had best 
fitted him to fill was one where eloquence and the power of 
swaying the feelings and passions of men counted for much, 
rather than a position that called for executive ability and 
the working out of details. 



l62 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

The war had brought taxes, and taxes are never popular. 
The question to be considered was what method of raising 
them would be least burdensome and offensive. Clay advo- 
cated a system of protective tariffs, which he termed the 
"American system." To the perfection of such a tariff he 
devoted himself at this time, and the subject was of great 
interest to him throughout his future political career. 

He came into conflict with the administration over the 
question of internal improvements. Monroe contended that 
the Constitution did not warrant the expenditure of money 
for such purposes. This view was held of necessity by the 
extreme states-rights people. Clay proclaimed the great 
destiny of the republic and urged the need of internal 
improvements in order to develop the dormant wealth of 
the country. Practically Clay held that whatever needed 
to be done for the welfare of the country was constitutional, 
unless the Constitution directly prohibited it. This was the 
beginning of a long struggle between the "strict" and 
"loose" constructionists, a struggle in which the "loose" 
constructionists have usually won. Mr. Clay ever rang the 
changes on the importance of opening up the West to 
settlers from the East. In debating this question he said : 

Sir, it is a subject of peculiar delight to me to look forward to the 
proud and happy period, distant as it may be, when circulation and 
association between the Atlantic and the Pacific and the Mexican 
Gulf shall be as free and perfect as they are at this moment in 
England, the most highly improved country on the globe. Sir, a new 
world has come into being since the Constitution was adopted. . . . 
Are we to neglect and refuse the redemption of that vast wilderness 
which once stretched unbroken beyond the Allegheny? 

The discussion over the admission of Missouri began in 
i8 18. It was typical of those that followed for forty years. 



HENRY CLAY 1 63 

The population of the North was growing much faster than 
that of the South, and the latter section felt the need of 
more slave states, that they might at least maintain control 
of the Senate. The result of a long and bitter controversy 
over the question was the admission of Missouri with no 
restriction as to slavery, but with an agreement that there 
should be no slavery in any other part of the territory ceded 
by France north of 36° 30', this being the southern boundary 
of Missouri. This was the famous Missouri Compromise. 
This struggle brought out the best energies of Clay, who 
favored the compromise. He was untiring in his efforts, 
worked with committees, interviewed individuals, and made 
eloquent speeches in what he believed to be the interest 
of the country. Clay was thoroughly patriotic and desired 
above all else to preserve the Union, which he loved more 
than he hated slavery. Clay's action during this contro- 
versy won for him the title "the great pacificator." 

In 1820 Clay retired from public life to retrieve his for- 
tunes through the practice of his profession. Then, as now, 
few public officials could live upon their salaries if they took 
an active part in affairs. After three years of retirement 
Clay was again elected to Congress and chosen Speaker. 

The great debates which led to the tariff of 1824 were 
participated in by Clay, notwithstanding the fact that he was 
Speaker. During this session he made a speech on what 
he called the "American System," which was the most elab- 
orate he ever made. Of it Carl Schurz says : 

His skill of statement, his ingenuity in the grouping of facts and 
principles, his plausibility of reasoning, his brilliant imagination, the 
fervor of his diction, the warm patriotic tone of his appeals, make a 
great impression. 



1 64 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Clay, Adams, Crawford, and Jackson were candidates for 
the Presidency in 1824. No one of them received a majority 
of the electoral votes, so the election went to the House of 
Representatives, which had to choose from the three receiv- 
ing the largest number of votes. This exckided Clay, as he 
stood fourth. Had the House been free to vote for whom 
they chose, Clay would probably have been elected. As it 
was, Clay cast his influence for Adams, who was chosen, to 
the great disappointment of Jackson, who had received the 
largest popular vote. Adams made Clay Secretary of State, 
and Jackson and his friends charged that there had been a 
secret bargain between Clay and Adams ; but it is clear now, 
and ought to have been then, that there was no truth in 
the charge. Jackson had always been a bitter enemy of 
Clay, and Crawford was a hopeless paralytic. It is evident, 
therefore, that Clay could not support any other candidate 
than Adams. The reasons for Adams's appointment of Clay 
as Secretary of State are given later in Adams's own words. 

When Clay resigned the Speakership he received the 
formal but hearty thanks of the House. He had made an 
admirable presiding officer. It is doubtful if any holder 
of the position has ever excelled him. His knowledge of 
parliamentary law and tactics was such that he had never 
been overruled. He was prompt in his decisions. In the 
stormiest times he was fair, courteous, self-controlled, and 
held the House in order. 

The bitter and persistent attacks on Clay and Adams 
that followed are worth reading as illustrating the theory 
that "a lie well stuck to is as good as the truth." It may 
be that such reading will render one less liable to be carried 
away by reckless charges against public officials. Towards 



HENRY CLAY 1 65 

the close of his term of office Adams referred to the attacks 
on Clay in the following language : 

Upon him the foulest slanders have been showered. The Depart- 
ment of State itself was a station which, by its bestowal, could confer 
neither honor nor profit upon him, but upon which he has shed un- 
fading honor by the manner in which he has discharged its duties. 
Prejudice and passion have charged him with obtaining that office by 
bargain and corruption. Before you, my fellow-citizens, in the pres- 
ence of our country and Heaven, I pronounce that charge totally 
unfounded. As to my motives in tendering him the Department of 
State when I did, let the man who questions them come forward. 
Let him look around among the statesmen and legislators of the 
nation and of that day ; let him then select and name the man whom, 
by his preeminent talents, by his splendid services, by his ardent 
patriotism, by his all-enduring public spirit, by his fervid eloquence 
in behalf of the rights and liberties of mankind, by his long experience 
in the offices of the Union, foreign and domestic, a President of the 
United States, intent only on the honor and welfare of his country, 
ought to have preferred to Henry Clay. 

In 1828 Jackson was elected by an overwhelming major- 
ity. Washington, the Adamses, Jefferson, Madison, and 
Monroe in forty-four years made seventy-four removals from 
office, mainly for cause. This was an average of less than 
two a year. In one year Jackson caused more than two 
thousand changes upon the theory that " to the victors 
belong the spoils." Clay foresaw the evil consequences 
that would arise from such a course and raised his voice 
against it. He said it was "a. system of universal rapacity 
substituted for a system of responsibility, and favoritism 
for fitness." The course pursued by Jackson, the evils of 
which Clay saw clearly, proved one of the most harmful, 
and most enduring as well, of all the acts known to our 
political history. 



1 66 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

In 1832 Jackson ran against Clay and was reelected, 
receiving even a larger majority than four years before. 
Clay's defeat was due largely to the hostility of the South 
towards his tariff views, but in part also to the controversy 
over the United States Bank and to the anti-masonic move- 
ment. It seemed as if so crushing a defeat must end the 
political career of Clay, but he soon became again the most 
conspicuous of all the public men of the country. 

The outcome of the Presidential contest was the intro- 
duction of a bill providing for a sweeping reduction of the 
tariff. After long and bitter discussion Clay introduced a 
compromise measure providing for a twenty-per-cent reduc- 
tion. This was adopted, though not satisfactory to either 
the protectionists or the free traders. 

A bitter debate ensued over the deposits in the United 
States Bank. It lasted three months, and such able men 
as Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and Ewing spoke against the 
administration ; but Jackson carried his point and overthrew 
the bank through such exercise of power as no other Presi- 
dent would have dared to exert. As a result of the various 
conflicts with the administration, and the removals from 
office which grew out of them, Clay moved that in all 
instances of appointment to office by the President, with 
the consent of the Senate, the power of removal should be 
exercised only by the consent of the Senate, save that the 
President might suspend an official during a recess of the 
Senate. He must, however, within a month from the begin- 
ning of its next session, report to the Senate such removal 
and the cause for the same, and if the Senate failed to 
approve, the official should be reinstated. Clay was induced 
not to urge his amendment, but substantially the same act 



HENRY CLAY 1 67 

was passed during the administration of Johnson, more than 
thirty years later. 

In 1836 the slavery question, which had been quieted by 
the Missouri Compromise, again arose in Congress, never- 
more to be suppressed so long as slavery lasted in the United 
States. Congress was flooded with petitions praying for the 
abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of 
Columbia. Calhoun denounced the petitions as being incen- 
diary documents and moved that they be not received. This 
was an arbitrary refusal of rights older than the government, 
an act that no free people would submit to, whatever their 
convictions might be on the subject of slavery. Recogniz- 
ing this fact, Buchanan moved that they be received and 
denied without reference to any committee. Clay, believ- 
ing in the right of petition and not believing in slavery, 
opposed both these motions, and moved that the petitions 
be received. This motion was carried, but later Buchanan's 
motion to deny the petitions without their having been 
referred to a committee was also carried. 

The anti-slavery discussion soon took another form. The 
abolition societies began to circulate tracts and periodicals 
through the mails. In Charleston a mob broke open the 
post office and took such of these documents as they could 
find and destroyed them. At a pviblic meeting at which 
the clergy of all denominations was represented the action 
of the mob was approved. The postmaster assumed the 
right to prevent the circulation of such literature and wrote 
to the postmaster at New York asking him not to forward 
it. He wrote for instructions to the postmaster-general, 
who disclaimed power to exclude such matter from the mails, 
but virtually advised the postmasters to do it on their own 



1 68 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

responsibility. Calhoun introduced a bill to make it unlaw- 
ful for any postmaster knowingly to deliver to any one any 
printed paper touching slavery, in any state or territory 
where such publications were prohibited. Clay denounced 
this bill, claiming that it was unconstitutional and fraught 
with danger to the liberty of the people. The bill was 
defeated by a decisive vote. 

As the discussion over slavery went on Clay seemed 
gradually to come to the conviction that the Abolitionists 
were dangerous people ; he also saw that he had greatly 
injured his popularity with the slaveholders. In February, 
1839, he presented a petition from the inhabitants of Wash- 
ington against the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia, and made a speech which appeared to be an 
effort to win back what he had lost in urging the right of 
petitioners to have their petitions presented and fairly dealt 
with. The truth probably is that slavery was wholly repug- 
nant to Mr. Clay as a man, but as a politician he dared not 
always show his true feelings. 

Clay failed to secure the nomination for the Presidency 
in 1840. Some of Webster's friends, the anti-masons, some 
of the anti-slavery Whigs, and those politicians who wanted 
the most "available" man, united on General Harrison, who 
was nominated and elected. Clay was angry and had some 
right to be. His friends were angry, grieved, and disap- 
pointed. Had Clay been nominated at this time, he would, 
without doubt, have been elected, for the great panic of 1837 
and matters growing out of it made it impossible for Van 
Buren to be reelected. Clay, notwithstanding his disap- 
pointment and his real grievances, gave a loyal support to 
the ticket. 



HENRY CLAY 169 

Harrison offered Clay the position of Secretary of State, 
which he clecHned, preferring to remain in the Senate. When 
Congress assembled Clay introduced a bill to repeal the sub- 
treasury act, but the Democrats had a majority in the Senate 
and the bill failed. Harrison died a month after his inau- 
guration and was succeeded by Tyler. Clay again introduced 
a bill to repeal the sub-treasury act, which passed and was 
signed. A bill to incorporate a new United States Bank 
was passed and vetoed. As a result of the veto all Tyler's 
cabinet save Webster resigned. The indignation of the 
Whigs was intense. They no longer recognized Tyler as 
a member of their party. The Whig papers throughout 
the country denounced him. He was burned in efhgy in 
many places. Clay soon resigned from the Senate and 
went to his home at Ashland. 

Tyler signed a treaty of annexation with Texas. The 
primary if not the sole purpose of annexation was the acqui- 
sition of more slave territory. The treaty was very unpop- 
ular at the North and correspondingly popular at the South. 
At this time Clay was making a tour of the country. He 
was at Raleigh, North Carolina, when the treaty was made 
public, and he immediately wrote a letter to the National 
Intellig-cncer-prolQ'sXmg against it. This letter was, of course, 
unpopular at the South, and it was not liked at the North 
because it did not give the extension of slavery as the chief 
reason for opposing annexation. 

In 1 844 Clay was nominated by the Whigs, and Polk by 
the Democrats. The Liberty party nominated James G. 
Birney. Clay was again defeated, chiefly because of his 
letter to Stephen F. Miller of Alabama in which he dis- 
claimed any personal objection to the annexation of Texas, 



I70 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

This, without doubt, cost him the vote of New York, and 
so the Presidency. Mr. Clay tried for the nomination again 
in 1848, but it went to General Taylor. In 1849 Clay again 
returned to the Senate and at once became foremost in all 
debates. As was always the case when the discussion of 
the slavery question became threatening. Clay had a com- 
promise measure. This time he proposed, as measures to 
please the North, the admission of California as a free state 
and the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia ; to placate the South he recommended a 
more efficient law for the pursuit and capture of fugitive 
slaves, and that Utah and New Mexico should be left unre- 
stricted as to slavery. He appealed to the North to make 
concessions, and to the South for peace. The debate that 
followed was participated in by all the great members of 
the Senate. The strongest speech against the measure 
was made by Calhoun, the great exponent and defender of 
slavery. It was in this debate that Webster disappointed, 
grieved, and angered many of his friends by denouncing the 
Abolitionists and greatly modifying his previously expressed 
views on the subject of slavery. Neither Clay nor Webster 
had kept pace with the growing anti-slavery sentiment in 
the North, and the time was ripe for new leaders who would 
more correctly represent the people of that section. Not 
only new leaders but also a new party was called for, 
and in this debate the leaders, the harbingers of the party, 
appeared, — Seward with his doctrine of a "higher law " and 
Chase with a similar doctrine. Clay and Webster had had 
their day. The Whig party had outlived its usefulness. 

Clay's health was broken by the strain of this session of 
Congress, and he was far less active in the next. He went 



HENRY CLAY 171 

to Cuba for his health, but derived no benefit from the trip. 
He died at Washington, June 29, 1852. For thirty years 
he had struggled unsuccessfully for the Presidency, which 
could have added nothing to his fame had he secured it, 
while failure to win it had brought him much unhappiness. 
Clay in common with all mankind had his faults and fail- 
ings ; he compromised his convictions at times because of his 
craving for the Presidency, but always and everywhere his 
love for the Union was unshaken and his patriotism beyond 
suspicion. No man ever loved his country more or served 
her better through a long life. No other American ever 
exerted so great an influence for so long a time ; no other 
name is more thoroughly or more honorably interwoven 
with his country's history. If one now wonders at Clay's 
apparently vacillating policy on the question of slavery, he 
should not forget that it is difficult, if not impossible, for 
those now living to appreciate the bitterness of those times 
and the great danger of the disruption of the government. 
Clay regarded the overthrow of the Union as the greatest 
possible evil, and he was prepared to make any necessary 
sacrifice to avert it. He said : 

I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union, — a subordinate 
one to my own state. When my state is right — when it has cause 
for resistance, when tyranny and wrong and oppression insufferable 
arise — I will then share her fortunes ; but if she summons me to the 
battlefield, or to support her in any cause which is unjust, against the 
Union, never, never will 1 engage with her in such a cause. 




Benjamin Franklin 



172 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

1706-1790 

For more than three centuries there hved in the Httle 
village of Ecton in Northamptonshire, England, a family 
by the name of Franklin. In every generation the eldest 
son became a blacksmith. Josiah, the father of Benjamin, 
was a dyer, but on coming to America he became a tallow 
chandler and soap boiler. Benjamin was his fifteenth child. 

Franklin's mother was Abiah Folger and was Josiah's 
second wife. Her husband was a rather narrow-minded 
Puritan, although a man of sterling character, and it is not 
surprising, perhaps, that the young Franklin should have 
revolted against the rigid beliefs of his father. 

The boy's early life was a struggle with poverty, dififi- 
culties, and hardships. The house in which he was born 
was a two-story building of four rooms, — a kitchen, an 
attic, and two other rooms, each twenty feet square. It 
is a little difficult to see how a family of the size of 
Franklin's could be made comfortable in such quarters, 
but it seems to have been a happy home. It is true that 
Benjamin quarreled with his half-brother James, and their 
relations seem not to have been very cordial after that ; but 
the Franklins were noted for strong family affection. 

Benjamin had a good home, good instruction, and access 
to good books. He was a precocious boy and inordinately 

173 



174 



SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 



fond of reading. When a man grown he said, " I do not 
remember when I could not read, so it must have been very 
early." In his boyhood he read Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress " and " Holy War," Defoe's " Essay on Projects," Bur- 
ton's " Historical Collections," Plutarch's " Lives," Mather's 




Birthplace of Franklin 
From Antique Views of Ye Towne of Boston 

" Essay to do Good," and many other works. During his 
whole life Franklin was an omnivorous reader, notwith- 
standing that he advised people to " read much, but not 
too many books." 

He was not a particularly promising young man, con- 
sidered from either a religious or a moral standpoint. He 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 175 

had no sympathy with the theological doctrines generally 
held in Boston in his time, and his conservative elders pre- 
dicted that little good would be said of him. 

When only seven years old Franklin was given his first 
spending money and allowed to use it as he chose. The 
following is his account of the affair: 

■ When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, 
filled my pockets with coppers. I went direcUy to a shop where they 
sold toys for children, and being charmed with the sound of a whistle, 
that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered 
and gave all my money for one. I then came home and went whis- 
tling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing 
all the family. My brothers and sisters and cousins, understanding 
the bargain that I had made, told me that I had given four times as 
much for it as it was worth, put me in mind what good things I might 
have bought with the rest of my money, and laughed at me so much 
for my folly that I cried with vexation, and the reflection gave more 
chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure. 

This, however, was of use to me, the impression continuing on my 
mind ; so that often when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary 
thing, I said to myself, " Don't give too much for the whistle"; so I 
saved my money. 

As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of 
men, I thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for 
the whistle. 

At eight years of age Franklin was sent to a grammar 
school. Afterwards he went to a famous school kept by 
George Brownell, to learn writing and arithmetic. At ten 
years of age he was taken from school and put at work in 
his father's shop. This he hated and wanted to go to sea, as 
some of his uncles had done. His passion for the sea was 
so strong that his father feared the lad would run away, so 
he looked about for some other business which might be 



176 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

more congenial. He finally concluded that as Benjamin was 
so fond of reading he might like to become a printer, and 
accordingly apprenticed him to his half-brother James, who 
had recently returned from England, where he had learned 
the trade. James Franklin was an excellent printer and 
did some of the best work of his time. 

Franklin was twelve years of age when he was appren- 
ticed to his brother. He was to serve till he was twenty- 
one years old and to receive journeyman's wages during 
the last year only. One of the advantages of the new work 
to Franklin was the increased opportunities that it gave 
him for reading. From this time he earned his own living 
and relied upon himself. His brother, being a bachelor, had 
to pay for his apprentice's board, and Franklin, who had 
been greatly impressed by a book advocating a vegetable 
diet, offered to board himself if he might be allowed half 
of what his brother was then paying. Out of this small 
allowance Benjamin saved half and used it to buy books. 
At the same time he was forming the habit of living on 
simple fare, — a habit which he kept up for many years and 
which no doubt contributed to his long life and good health. 

In 1729 James Franklin began the publication of a paper 
called the Nciv England Conrant, though his friends advised 
against it, saying that one paper was enough for America. 
That seems strange advice to us who are living at a time 
when there are about twenty-five thousand papers published 
in the United States. Benjamin wrote some anonymous 
articles for his brother's paper, which attracted consider- 
able attention. About the same time he wrote some verses, 
among them " The Lighthouse Tragedy," which his brother 
printed, and which had a considerable sale. This made 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1 77 

Franklin a little vain, but his father read them over with 
him and pointed out the faults so clearly that Benjamin 
had no further desire to write verse. He then attempted 
prose, and a young man named Collins and himself carried on 
an argument through correspondence for mutual improve- 
ment in writing. This work Franklin's father also criti- 
cised, commending some things and condemning others. 
About this time Franklin came across an odd volume of 
the Spectator, and was so pleased with it that he resolved 
to copy its style. To do this he would first write out the 
story in verse, and then after he had almost forgotten 
the prose, turn the verse into prose and compare it with 
the original. 

When Franklin was about sixteen years old, one of his 
brother's patrons, Matthew Adams, came to regard him as 
a very talented boy and invited him to make free use of his 
library. From that time, so long as he remained in Boston, 
Franklin reveled in books. 

Soon after the establishment of the Nezv England Con- 
rant, James Franklin became engaged in a controversy with 
some of the most prominent Boston clergymen, and printed 
an article which, by implication, reflected on the civil authori- 
ties. For this he was taken into custody, imprisoned for 
four weeks, and publicly censured. Neither the imprison- 
ment nor the censure seems to have had much effect, for 
he continued to publish many articles which shocked the 
people and "injuriously reflected on the reverend and faith- 
ful ministers of the Gospel and his majesty's government." 
James was again imprisoned and forbidden to publish the 
Conrant, or any pamphlet or paper of like nature, without 
its having been approved by the secretary of the province. 



178 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

At this time Boston was a town of about twelve thousand 
inhabitants and was practically ruled by the Calvinistic 
ministers. 

As James Franklin was not allowed to publish the Cou- 
rant, it was decided to issue it in Benjamin's name. It would 
hardly have done to issue it in the name of an apprentice, 
for that would have been a very palpable evasion. of the 
order of the Assembly ; so Benjamin's indenture was can- 
celed with the understanding that he was to sign new arti- 
cles which should be kept secret. Franklin edited the paper 
during his brother's imprisonment, and was, perhaps, the 
youngest editor the country has ever known. 

Although the brothers were agreed in the fight with the 
church and the state, they were at odds in most other 
respects. James was overbearing, ill-natured, and abusive. 
They had many quarrels and their father usually sided 
with Benjamin. Finally their quarrels grew so bitter that 
Benjamin, feeling sure that his brother would not dare to 
present the papers that had been kept secret, declared that 
his indenture had been canceled and that he was free to do 
as he chose. His brother, however, had sufficient influence 
to prevent his being employed by any one else in Boston. 
In this quarrel the father sided with James. Later in life 
Franklin admitted that he had been wrong, and also that 
he had given his brother much provocation. So strongly 
did he feel this that he made good what he thought had 
been James's financial loss in the matter. 

Being unable to get work in Boston, Benjamin ran away, 
going by sloop to New York. Here also he was unable to 
obtain employment, so he went on to Philadelphia, where he 
was employed by a printer by the name of Samuel Keimer. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1 79 

Franklin was a man of far greater skill than any printer 
then in Philadelphia, and was besides remarkable for his 
wit, good nature, and intelligence. His work attracted 
much attention. By chance a letter of his was brought to 
the notice of Sir William Keith, governor of the province. 
He thought Franklin a promising young man who should 
be encouraged, and advised him to start in business on his 
own account, promising him the public business if he did, 
and also to aid him in all other ways in his power. 

Franklin doubted if he could obtain any assistance, but 
finally decided to return to Boston and see what he could 
accomplish. He took a letter from the governor to his 
father. His people were glad to see him, as they had heard 
nothing from him since he left and were fearful that he 
was dead. He received a warm welcome, but although his 
father was very much pleased with the governor's good 
report, he positively refused to give the young man any 
money. He advised him to return to Philadelphia and by 
hard work and strict economy to save money so that by 
the time he was twenty-one he might go into business for 
himself, promising to aid him then if necessary. 

On his return Benjamin worked some time for Keimer, 
but finally went to England, Governor Keith agreeing to 
give him a letter of credit and letters of introduction to 
a number of his friends. Franklin reached London on 
Christmas Eve, 1724, only to find that he had been de- 
ceived and that Governor Keith was wholly without credit 
in that city. He at once secured employment at Palmer's, 
a famous printing house. Here he was known as " the 
water American," from the fact that he drank nothing 
stronger than water. The other workmen were "great 



l8o SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

guzzlers of beer," Franklin tells us. He was asked if all 
Americans were like him in the matter of drink, and replied, 
" No, I am sorry to say that a great many of them are 
like you." 

After spending eighteen months in London Franklin 
had a good business offer from a Philadelphia merchant 
and returned to that city; but his employer soon died and 
he was again without work. 

Keimer offered him good wages to superintend his print- 
ing office and he accepted the position. He found that 
Keimer had a number of apprentices at very small pay 
but with an agreement to raise their wages as they increased 
in skill. Franklin saw that Keimer's plan was to stimu- 
late his apprentices to make all possible progress, and then 
as soon as the business was in good working shape to dis- 
pense with his services, and it so proved. In fact, as soon 
as Keimer felt he could get on without him he provoked 
a quarrel and Franklin left, Keimer regretting that he had 
bound himself to keep him as long as he did. 

Franklin now planned to return to Boston, but Hugh 
Meredith, one of Keimer's men, whose apprenticeship would 
soon expire, came to him and proposed that they go into 
partnership, Meredith's father to furnish the money. This 
was agreed upon, and in the summer of 1728 appeared the 
sign " B. Franklin and H. Meredith." They received some 
patronage from friends, but Franklin was not the kind of 
man to rely upon such support. In December the annual 
speech of the governor was printed by Andrew Bradford, 
the public printer, in a very slovenly and bungling manner. 
Franklin at once reprinted it, of course without pay, in 
the very best manner possible, and sent a copy to each 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



I8l 



member of the Assembly. The contrast in the work was 
so great that FrankUn secured, the public printing for the 
following year. Through the excellence of their work the 
firm was given the public printing for Delaware and New 
Jersey as well. 

Franklin, remembering his boyhood experience with 
the Nctv England Connint, planned to start a paper, but 
Keimer, learning of it, 
forestalled him and 
late in 1728 issued the 
first number of the 
Universal Instructor in 
All Arts and Sciences, 
the Pennsylvania Ga- 
zette. It proved a losing 
venture, and when the 
thirty-ninth number 
was reached the paper 
was sold to Franklin, 
who kept only the lat- 
ter part of the title, 
the Pennsylvania Ga- 
zette. He made it a 
semi-weekly paper for 
a time ; but there did 





m. 




A 




-— T^ 


/ 


I^^Hh^^' 


^^^5BHIi^WIB||^^^B 



Franklin s Printing Press 



not seem to be a demand for such frequent publication, and 
it was soon made a weekly again. The semi-weekly edi- 
tion was the first published in America. The paper was 
very popular and its circulation reached from Virginia to 
New York, being larger than any other paper in the coun- 
try. It was remarkable for its brilliant and original articles. 



1 82 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Franklin achieved this great success when he was only 
twenty-three years old. 

Franklin's most successful publication was " Poor Rich- 
ard's Almanac." It was begun in December, 1732, and 
continued for twenty-five years with an average sale of ten 
thousand copies, which was very remarkable when we con- 
sider the conditions at that time. The population of the 
country was small and widely scattered. The mail facilities 
amounted to but little. Nearly all the people were poor, 
and there was comparatively little reading done. The 
almanac became one of the most influential publications 
in the world. Seventy-five editions have been printed in 
English, fifty-six in French, eleven in German, and nine 
in Italian. It has been translated into Spanish, Danish, 
Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Gaelic, Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, 
Catalan, Chinese, modern Greek, French, German, Italian, 
and phonetic writing. It has been printed more than four 
hundred times and is still popular. 

Franklin established printing offices in other places, put- 
ting each in charge of some competent and promising jour- 
neyman printer, furnishing the capital and having a part of 
the profits. In nearly every case the printer prospered so 
that in a few years he was able to buy the establishment. 

In Philadelphia Franklin organized a club known as the 
Junto, composed of bright young men who met every 
Friday evening. Each member, in turn, was required to 
bring for discussion some question of morals, politics, or 
natural philosophy. Once in three months each member 
was required to read an essay, taking whatever subject 
he chose. This club not only was of great value to its 
members but also became a power in Philadelphia. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 183 

In 1730 Franklin married Deborah Reid, with whom he 
Hved happily for forty-four years. During their early married 
life they lived in the most frugal manner over his shop. Their 
furniture was limited in amount and of the plainest kind. 
For a long time Franklin's breakfast consisted of only bread 
and milk. 

At thirty years of age Franklin had become one of the 
leading citizens of Philadelphia. He owned a printing estab- 
lishment, edited and published the Permsylvania Gazette, 
issued " Poor Richard's Almanac " annually, and was at the 
same time postmaster of the city and clerk of the Assembly. 

While Franklin wrote much on a great variety of sub- 
jects and carried on an extensive correspondence with 
learned men and societies, he is best known by his auto- 
biography and as the writer of " Poor Richard's Almanac." 
Among the brightest things written by Franklin are "The 
Whistle," "The Dialogue with the Gout," "The Morals of 
Chess," and several other essays written when he was in 
France for the amusement of his intimate friends and not 
intended for publication. He also wrote much on scientific 
subjects. His letters to his wife when he was in Europe 
are very interesting and are well worth reading. 

The following extracts from " Poor Richard " show to what 
extent FrankHn's sayings have entered into common use. 

Many a little makes a mickle. 
Little strokes fell great oaks. 
Lost time is never found again. 
There are no gains without pains. 
One to-day is worth two to-morrows. 
The doors of wisdom are never shut. 
He that hath a trade hath an estate. 
Constant dropping wears away stones. 



184 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

A small leak will sink a great ship. 
God helps them that help themselves. 
Diligence is the mother of good luck. 
Who dainties love shall beggars prove. 

He that by the plow would thrive, 
Himself must either hold or drive. 

The sleeping fox catches no poultry. 

Early to bed and early to rise, 

Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. 

For age and want save while you may ; 
No morning sun lasts the whole day. 

Three can keep a secret if two are dead. 

Plow deep while sluggards sleep. 

And you shall have corn to sell and keep. 

Fools make feasts and wise men eat them. 

Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee. 

Drive thy business, let not that drive thee. 

Creditors have better memories than debtors. 

Virtue and a trade are a child's best portion. 

Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt. 

Many have been ruined by buying good pennyworths. 

Employ thy time well if thou meanst to gain leisure. 

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy. 

Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge. 

A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. 

If you would be wealthy think of saving as well as getting. 

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands. 

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. 

Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used 
key is always bright. 

He that riseth late must trot all day and shall scarce overtake his 
business at night. 

But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is the 
stuff life is made of. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 185 

As Scientist and Inventor 

At forty-two years of age Franklin took a partner to 
look after the printing, that he might devote himself to 
science. He was already widely known as a philosopher. 
From this time on his advancement in science was so 
rapid that he was soon widely known throughout America 
and Europe, and he became one of the most noted philoso- 
phers in the world. He was elected a member of the 
Royal Society of London in 1753, and the following year 
it bestowed upon him the Copley medal for his discoveries 
in electricity. 

Both Yale and Harvard conferred upon him the degree 
of Master of Arts. The Academy of Science of Paris 
made him an associate member. All the learned societies 
of Europe admitted him to their ranks. Kant called him 
the "Prometheus of modern times." Later the universities 
of St. Andrews, London, and Edinburgh conferred upon 
him the degree of Doctor of Laws. American universities, 
colleges, legislatures, and literary societies gave him their 
highest honors. 

Franklin seemed to be always eager to know the why 
and wherefore of every occurrence the meaning of which 
was not clearly apparent. He sought at once to make 
every new discovery or idea of practical value to mankind. 
His mind was so alert, his grasp so remarkable, his dis- 
position to turn everything to practical account so pro- 
nounced that had he lived in our time he might easily 
have rivaled Edison in the number of his inventions, and" 
had he chosen to use his genius to make money his wealth 
might have been almost beyond belief. However, he never 



l86 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

patented anything or sought in any way to profit by his 
inventions. When the governor of Pennsylvania offered 
him a patent for his open stove he decHned it, saying, "As 
we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, 
we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by 
any inventions of ours ; and this we should do freely and 
generously." 

Just how generous this act was is shown by the fact that 
a London dealer made some slight changes in the stove, 
which Franklin claimed lessened rather than increased its 
value, patented it in England, and made a small fortune 
from it. 

Franklin once said : " It is incredible the amount of good 
that may be done in a country by a single man who will 
make a business of it and not suffer himself to be diverted 
from that purpose by different avocations, studies, or amuse- 
ments." 

Perhaps he himself, though he had many avocations and 
studies to divert his mind, best illustrates his statement. 
The almost incredible activity of his mind and the great 
range of his thought are indicated by the following list — 
for there is not space in this sketch for more than a mere 
list — of the more important inventions and actions of 
Franklin. In considering this it should be borne in mind 
that this was the work of the leisure hours of a very busy 
man who not only had his private business to look after but 
who also devoted the best part of his life to the service of 
the public. Well might Paul Leicester Ford call him the 
"many-sided Franklin," and Bancroft say of him, "Not 
half his merits has been told." It seems incredible that one 
man could do so much. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 187 

He originated the lightning rod. 

He promoted the early culture of silk. 

He founded the American Philosophical Society. 

He created the post-office system of America. 

He was the first champion of reformed spelling. 

He determined the temperature of the Gulf Stream. 

He suggested the use of mineral fertilizers. 

He introduced the basket willow into this country. 

He was the first to make systematic use of advertising. 

He recommended the use of white clothing for hot weather. 

He laid the foundation for the University of Pennsylvania. 

He discovered the identity of lightning and electricity. 

He discovered that northeast storms may begin in the southwest. 

He was the first to recommend the use of oil to make rough seas 
smooth. 

He was the first to recommend building ships with water-tight 
compartments. 

He founded the Philadelphia library, the parent of a thousand others. 

He was the first to suggest that the aurora was an electrical mani- 
festation. 

He established and inspired the Junto, the most useful of all 
American clubs. 

He established the first fire company and the first insurance com- 
pany in Philadelphia. 

He published " Poor Richard's Almanac," which made thousands 
of its readers better and stronger men. 

He invented the Franklin stove, which heated rooms better than 
was possible before and with the consumption of much less fuel. 

He performed countless experiments, the most famous one being 
that with the kite during a thunderstorm. 

Franklin was in constant correspondence with scientific 
men in all parts of the world. He wrote much on such 
subjects as sun spots, shooting stars, light, heat, fire, elec- 
tricity, air, evaporation, the tides, rainfall, geology, winds, 
whirlwinds, waterspouts, ventilation, and sound. 



1 88 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

As Politician and Diplomat 

In speaking of public office Franklin said : " I never refused 
one that I was capable of executing when public service 
was in question ; and I never bargained for salary, but con- 
tented myself with whatever my constituents were pleased 
to allow me." On another occasion he said, " I shall never 
ask, never refuse, nor ever resign an office." Franklin 
believed in the doctrine "to the victors belong the spoils" ; 
at least he practiced it. When he was postmaster-general 
he appointed one of his brothers postmaster of Boston and 
another postmaster of Philadelphia, and upon the death of 
the latter made his widow postmistress, probably the first 
woman in this country to hold a political office. Through- 
out his life Franklin secured many political offices for his 
relatives. 

In 1736 he was chosen clerk of the General Assembly 
of Pennsylvania, a position that he held for fourteen years 
and one which gave him opportunity to widen his acquaint- 
ance with public men. 

In 1737 Franklin was made postmaster of Philadelphia. 

In 1753 he was made postmaster-general of the colonies 
for England. 

In 1754 commissioners from the different colonies met 
at Albany to confer with the "Six Nations" in regard to 
defense against the French. At this Albany Congress 
there were present as delegates twenty-five of the leading 
men of the colonies, Franklin among the number. He 
presented a plan for a general government, to be admin- 
istered by a president-general appointed and supported by 
the crown and a congress chosen by the assemblies of the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 189 

various colonies. This plan was unanimously adopted by 
the congress but rejected by the government in England. 

In 1757 Franklin was sent to England as agent for the 
colony of Pennsylvania and acted in that capacity year after 
year. He also acted as agent for Massachusetts, New 
Jersey, and Georgia. He put forth his best efforts to pre- 
vent war between the colonies and the mother country, 
going so far at times as to be distrusted by both countries, 
but when war became inevitable he was foremost in all 
efforts looking to the success of the colonies. He urged 
their immediate union in the contest with England, as at 
an earlier date he had urged their union for mutual help in 
their contests with the French and Indians. 

Franklin early said : 

I have long been of the opinion that the foundations of the future 
grandeur and stability of the British Empire lie in America ; and 
though, like other foundations, they are low and little now, they are 
nevertheless broad, and strong enough to support the greatest polit- 
ical structure that human wisdom ever yet erected. 

Just before the outbreak of the Revolution, and after it 
was evident that Franklin could no longer serve the colo- 
nies in England, he returned to America and was chosen a 
member of the Continental Congress. He was at this time 
sixty-nine years old and one of the most illustrious men in 
America. He was made postmaster-general and also a mem- 
ber of many important committees. As postmaster-general 
he made great improvements in the service, lowered the 
rate of postage, advertised unclaimed letters, increased the 
number of mails, lessened the time of transmission, and 
opened the mails to all newspapers. He personally visited 
every post office in the country save the one at Charleston. 



I90 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

He was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, 
chosen president of the Pennsylvania Convention, and made 
chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, with 
duties similar to those of a governor. 

Franklin was not a good speaker. He says of himself : 
" I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent, subject to much 
hesitation in the choice of my words, hardly correct in lan- 
guage, and yet I generally carried my points." Jefferson 
speaks of his service with Franklin and Washington and 
says : " I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at 
a time, nor to any but the main point, which was to decide 
the question." 

It was desirable to cultivate the most friendly relations 
with France, and all agreed that Franklin was the man to 
send there. He had traveled in that country, had many 
friends there, and knew the language. The histor}'^ of his 
efforts in France, which were crowned with success, is too 
long to be told in detail here. His influence with the 
French ministry was very great. A historian of American 
diplomacy says that Franklin is the only true diplomat 
that America has produced. His duties as minister to 
France were multifarious. He was practically Secretary 
of the Navy. He purchased supplies, fitted out expeditions, 
gave commissions, sold prizes, raised money, settled disputes, 
in fact he was the American government in France so far 
as such matters were concerned. He was the greatest finan- 
cier of the Revolution. While his personal contributions 
were insignificant compared with those of Robert Morris, his 
success in getting financial aid from the French was marvel- 
ous, and without it the American cause must apparently 
have failed. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN I9I 

Franklin was so popular in France that his picture was 
found in thousands of French homes ; and the Franklin stove 
was largely used, quite as much on account of its inventor 
as on account of its value. Poets wrote sonnets in his honor, 
noble dames addressed him in verse, and all classes sought 
every opportunity to speak with him or to see him. 

Franklin was benevolent, sincere, and just in his dealings, 
abhorring deceit, flattery, falsehood, injustice, and dishonesty. 
He differed from most self-educated men in that he was 
broad and liberal in his views, respectful towards the opinions 
of others, even when he thought them wrong, and always 
open to new convictions. When he was in Europe he became 
intimately acquainted with Priestley, Price, Adam Smith, 
Hume, Robertson, Burke, Pratt, Lord Kames, Buffon, Vol- 
taire, and many other noted men. 

When chosen president of Pennsylvania at the age of 
seventy-nine he wrote to a friend in England : 

I had on my return some right to expect repose ; and it was my 
intention to avoid all public business. But I had not firmness enough 
to resist the unanimous desire of my country folks, and I find myself 
harnessed again in their service for another year. They engrossed 
the prime of my life. They have eaten my flesh and now seem 
resolved to pick my bones. 

The year proved to be three years, and at the end of that 
time, at the age of eighty-two, he was chosen a member of 
the constitutional convention, in which he rendered services 
as valuable as any given during his long life. Many of 
the more important features of the Constitution were pro- 
posed and urged by him. 

On his return from France in 1785 he was in the very 
height of his fame. Every vessel brought him letters from 



192 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

the most famous men of Europe. Every prominent person 
who traveled in America went to see him. Villages, towns, 
and counties were named in his honor. He was always 
mentioned with respect and regard. It was " the venerable 
Dr. Franklin," "the revered patriot, Dr. Franklin," "our 
illustrious countryman and friend of man," "the father of 
American independence," etc. 

In 1787 he was chosen president of the first abolition 
society formed in this country. About five months before 
his death he signed, as president of the abolition society, 
a memorial to Congress in which he said : "That mankind 
are all formed by the same Almighty being, alike objects 
of his care, and equally designed for the enjoyment of 
happiness, the Christian religion teaches us to believe, and 
the political creed of the Americans fully coincides with 
that position." 

Not long before his death Franklin wrote to President 
Washington, saying : 

My malady renders my sitting up to write rather painful to me, 
but I cannot let my son-in-law, Mr. Bache, part for New York without 
congratulating you, by him, on the recovery of your health, so precious 
to us all, and on the growing strength of our new government under 
your administration. For my own personal ease I should have died 
two years ago ; but though those years have been .spent in excruciating 
pain, I am pleased to have lived them, since they have brought me to 
see our present situation. I am now finishing my eighty-fourth year, 
and probably with it my career in this life ; but whatever state of 
existence I am placed in hereafter, if I retain any memory of what 
passed here, I shall with it retain the esteem, respect, and affection 
with which I have long been, my dear friend. 

Yours most sincerely, 

Benjamin Franklin, 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1 93 

During Mr. Franklin's last illness Washington wrote 
him as follows : " If to be venerated for benevolence, if to 
be admired for talents, if to be esteemed for patriotism, if 
to be beloved for philanthropy can gratify the human mind, 
you must have the pleasing consolation to know that you 
have not lived in vain." 

Franklin died on the 17th of April, 1790. Twenty 
thousand persons attended his funeral services. The bells 
of the city were muffled and tolled ; flags on the shipping 
were at half-mast ; cannon were discharged at the close 
of the funeral ceremonies. Congress and the National 
Assembly of France passed suitable resolutions. Scientific 
and political societies did honor to his memory. Members 
of Congress wore a black badge for thirty days. The 
National Assembly of France put on mourning. This body 
and the Community of Paris sent letters of condolence to 
the President of the United States, the first time that a pub- 
lic body of one country had paid homage to a private citizen 
of another. The city of Passy, where he lived when in 
France, gave his name to a street. 

A list of the public positions held by Franklin will impress 
upon one, more forcibly perhaps than all that has been said, 
how large a part he had in making our country what it was 
at the time of his death. 

Justice of the Peace. 

Postmaster of Philadelphia. 

Colonel of militia. 

Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly. 

Member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. 

Member of the Common Council of Philadelphia. 

Member of the Board of Aldermen of Philadelphia. 

President of Pennsylvania. 



194 SOME SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 

Member of a Committee to Canada. 
Member of the Continental Congress. 
Minister to France during the Revolution. 
Member of the Constitutional Convention. 
Commissioner to negotiate a peace with England. 
Member of the Secret Committee of Congress. 
Chairman of the Committee of Safety for Pennsylvania. 
Representative of Pennsylvania.at the Colonial Congress at Albany. 
Member of the Supreme Executive Committee of Pennsylvania. 
Member of the Committee of Three to confer with Lord Howe. 
Member of the Committee of Secret Correspondence of Congress. 
One of a committee of five to draft the Declaration of Independence. 
Agent to England for Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, 
and Georgia. 

This constituted a part of the public work of a man who 
started out in life with no education beyond that obtained 
in an ordinary elementary school, one who had no influen- 
tial friends, and who cared for himself from the time he 
was twelve years old. It is good to live in a country where 
such things are possible. 










LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





